STEPHANIE GRIFFIN
Indicators of hearing protection use: Self report and research observation
Industrial Hygiene and Safety, MS
Preceptor: Noah Seixas, PhD
Hearing protection devices are commonly used to prevent occupational noise-induced hearing loss. There is a large body of research on hearing protection use in industry, and much of it relies on workers’ self-reported use of hearing protection. Based on previous studies in fixed industry, worker self-report has been accepted as an adequate and reliable tool to measure this behavior among workers in many industrial sectors. However, recent research indicates self-reported hearing protection use may not accurately reflect subject behavior in industries with variable and unpredictable noise exposure. This study compares workers’ self-reported use of hearing protection to their observed use in three workplaces with two types of noise environments: one construction site and one fixed industry facility with a variable, unpredictable noise environment, and one fixed industry facility with a stable, predictable noise environment. Subjects reported their use of hearing protection on a self-administered questionnaire and activity cards; activity card results are compared to researcher observations for validation. Additional variables thought to affect the accuracy of self-reported hearing protection use were also analyzed. Results of this study show that workers at the fixed facility with stable noise more accurately self-report their hearing protection use than workers at the variable noise sites.
