Dobie Robert A, Agrawal Yuri
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Audiol Neurootol. 2011;16(1):29-35. doi: 10.1159/000308452. Epub 2010 May 29.
One can study occupational noise exposure by comparing hearing thresholds of exposed people to control data from national or international standards. ANSI S3.44 (1996) offers Annex C--thresholds for people without occupational noise exposure--as appropriate control data for such comparisons. Annex C is based on the false assumption that people who have had occupational noise exposure are similar in all other important ways to those without such exposures. In fact, people with noisy jobs are more likely than others to be smokers, diabetics, poorly educated, white and exposed to non-occupational noise. Taking these other risk factors into account, the appropriate thresholds for comparison to industrial study populations are closer to those of the unscreened population than to an 'Annex C' population that simply excludes occupationally noise-exposed persons.
人们可以通过将接触噪声的人群的听力阈值与来自国家或国际标准的对照数据进行比较，来研究职业噪声暴露情况。美国国家标准学会（ANSI）S3.44（1996）提供了附录C——未接触职业噪声人群的阈值——作为此类比较的合适对照数据。附录C基于一个错误的假设，即有职业噪声暴露经历的人与没有这种暴露经历的人在所有其他重要方面都相似。事实上，从事噪声工作的人比其他人更有可能是吸烟者、糖尿病患者、受教育程度低、白人且接触非职业噪声。考虑到这些其他风险因素，与工业研究人群进行比较的合适阈值更接近未筛查人群的阈值，而不是仅仅排除职业噪声暴露人群的“附录C”人群的阈值。
