Griffin Stephanie C, Neitzel Richard, Daniell William E, Seixas Noah S
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J Occup Environ Hyg. 2009 Oct;6(10):639-47. doi: 10.1080/15459620903139060.
Hearing protection devices (HPD) 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 noise exposure. This study compares workers' self-reported use of hearing protection with their observed use in three workplaces with two types of noise environments: one construction site and one fixed industry facility with a variable noise environment, and one fixed industry facility with a steady noise environment. Subjects reported their use of hearing protection on self-administered surveys and activity cards, which were validated using researcher observations. The primary outcome of interest in the study was the difference between the self-reported use of hearing protection in high noise on the activity card and survey: (1) over one workday, and (2) over a 2-week period. The primary hypotheses for the study were that subjects in workplaces with variable noise environments would report their use of HPDs less accurately than subjects in the stable noise environment, and that reporting would be less accurate over 2 weeks than over 1 day. In addition to noise variability, other personal and workplace factors thought to affect the accuracy of self-reported hearing protection use were also analyzed. This study found good agreement between subjects' self-reported HPD use and researcher observations. Workers in the steady noise environment self-reported hearing protection use more accurately on the surveys than workers in variable noise environments. The findings demonstrate the potential importance of noise exposure variability as a factor influencing reporting accuracy.
听力保护装置（HPD）常用于预防职业性噪声引起的听力损失。关于工业领域中听力保护装置使用情况的研究众多，其中大部分研究依赖于工人自我报告的听力保护装置使用情况。基于以往在固定行业的研究，工人自我报告已被视为衡量许多工业部门工人这一行为的充分且可靠的工具。然而，最近的研究表明，自我报告的听力保护装置使用情况可能无法准确反映噪声暴露情况多变的行业中的实际行为。本研究比较了工人在三种工作场所中自我报告的听力保护装置使用情况与其实际观察到的使用情况，这三种工作场所具有两种噪声环境：一个建筑工地和一个噪声环境多变的固定行业设施，以及一个噪声环境稳定的固定行业设施。受试者通过自行填写的调查问卷和活动卡报告他们对听力保护装置的使用情况，这些报告通过研究人员的观察进行验证。该研究关注的主要结果是活动卡和调查问卷中自我报告的在高噪声环境下听力保护装置的使用情况之间的差异：（1）在一个工作日内，以及（2）在两周的时间段内。该研究的主要假设是，与处于稳定噪声环境中的受试者相比，处于噪声环境多变的工作场所中的受试者对听力保护装置使用情况的报告准确性较低，并且在两周内的报告准确性低于在一天内的报告准确性。除了噪声的多变性外，还分析了其他被认为会影响自我报告听力保护装置使用准确性的个人和工作场所因素。本研究发现受试者自我报告的听力保护装置使用情况与研究人员的观察结果之间具有良好的一致性。在调查问卷中，处于稳定噪声环境中的工人对听力保护装置使用情况的自我报告比处于噪声环境多变的工人更准确。研究结果表明，噪声暴露的多变性作为影响报告准确性的一个因素具有潜在的重要性。
