CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS FOR DEAFNESS IN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

Noise exposure is a major cause of deafness. Industrial workers, many of whom frequently come from ethnic communities, are most vulnerable. Cultural differences in causal attributions made for mid-life hearing loss were examined in a survey of 665 health practitioners from the Ch inese, German, Greek, Italian, Arabic speaking and Anglo Australian co mmunities. They reported on community usage of 18 explanations. Signif icant differences were found in the endorsement of 14 explanations. Th e attributions of the Chinese differed most from those of Anglo Austra lians. All communities except the Arabic speaking, included the majori ty of scientific explanations within their main attributions. However the role of heredity and aging were overemphasised, drugs were discoun ted and chance was a favoured explanation. The Italian, Chinese and Ar abic communities were less aware of the dangers of noise and together with the Greeks were most prone to use supernatural explanations. Impl ications for hearing protection programs are discussed.