Predictors of hearing loss in New York farmers

Background Data from the telephone interview portion of the New York Farm F amily Health and Hazard Surveillance were used to study self-reported heari ng loss in New York farmers. Methods One thousand six hundred and twenty-two persons completed the heari ng loss and noise exposure interview. Hearing loss was defined as at least some trouble hearing in one or both ears. Predictors of hearing loss were d etermined using logistic regression. Results Twenty-two percent of participants reported hearing loss. From the logistic regression, significant confounders are age (P = 0.0001), gender ( P = 0.0001), being from a livestock farm (P = 0.012), and loss of conscious ness due to head trauma (P = 004). Significant noise exposures are more hou rs of lifetime exposure to noisy farm equipment (P = 0.001) and having had a noisy non-farm job (with some hearing protection P = 0.002, without any h earing protection P = 0.0001). Conclusions Farm noise exposure is a serious risk to the hearing of this po pulation. Although use of hearing protection should be encouraged, replacin g and modifying farm equipment to decrease noise at the source should be th e first priority. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.