An evaluation of the U.S. Air Force's detailed follow-up audiometric examination program.

The authors used information on individuals demonstrating permanent threshold shifts contained in the United States Air Force Hearing Conservation Data Registry to evaluate the effectiveness of detailed follow-up audiometric examinations as part of the USAF Hearing Conservation Program. Analysis yielded a relative risk of 1.00 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.97-1.03, which indicates a high probability that the true effect of these audiograms on the results of the next annual exam is minuscule, if not zero.