A study of effect of shift work, sex, and smoking on development of ONIHL in plastic weavers.

Background: Exposure to Occupational noise is the major avoidable cause of permanent hearing loss that is preventable by protective measures. Present study evaluated hearing profile and effects of shift, sex, and smoking on hearing loss in plastic weavers working in textile industry exposed to impact type of noise. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of hearing threshold of various shift workers of plastic weaving industries (18 males, 32 females) at various frequencies was done and effect of various factors was tested at low and high frequencies and compared at 4 kHz, 6 kHz, and 8 kHz statistically. Results: Hearing thresholds were significantly higher at high frequencies than speech frequencies, in day shift workers than night shift workers and within day shift workers more with continuous type of shift work than interrupted type. Females showed better hearing than males and for non-smokers than smokers, but the difference observed in both instances proved statistically insignificant. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the use of alternate day and night shift, interrupted day shift may be used to prevent hearing loss and for further confirmation few more studies are warranted. Being female and non smoking also proved an advantage. Comparatively, mild to moderate degree of hearing loss further reinforces the scope of prevention by hearing protective devices and interrupted shift design of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]