噪音型聽力損失勞工的聽力與溝通問題

The Hearing and Communication Problems of Workers with NIHL

本研究旨在調查噪音型聽力損失勞工的聽力損失情形及溝通問題，以喚起行政及教育機關對勞工聽力保健的重視，作為加強輔導的參考。本研究以高雄地區某大型鋼鐵工廠的典型噪音聽力損失男性勞工69名及高頻下降型的噪音聽力損失男性勞工85名為研究對象，針對其86年度聽力檢查資料進行聽力水準的分析及溝通問題的問卷調查。本研究的結論如下：一、對典型噪音聽力損失勞工而言：1、自評聽力差者、自覺聽力變壞者、有耳鳴者、每週戴耳塞的時數多者、在噪音作業的工作年數少者，其溝通問題較嚴重，此五項對溝通問題的預測力達43.53％。2、左耳1kHz及右耳0.5kHz聽閾越大者，其溝通問題越嚴重，此二項對溝通問題的預測力為13.54％。二、對高頻下降型噪音聽力損失的勞工來說：1、自評聽力差者、自覺聽力變壞者、有耳鳴者、自評溝通能力差者，其溝通問題較嚴重，此四項對溝通問題的預測力達44.1％。2、右耳4kHz、左耳8kHz、4kHz聽閾越大者，其溝通問題越嚴重，此三項對溝通問題的預測力達10.46﹪。三、約五成的噪音型聽力損失勞工中有中度或重度的聽語音困難，約一成的噪音型聽力損失勞工有中度或重度的溝通困擾，有中度或重度溝通問題的噪音型聽力損失勞工約有一成半。

The purposes of the study were to investigate hearing and communication problems of workers with Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) to draw administrative and educational personnels' attention to the issue of hearing conservation for workers. Subjects were 69 workers who had typical NIHL (V-typed) and 85 workers who had precipitous-typed hearing loss. They worked in a steel company in Kaohsiung city. Workers hearing threshold levels and their answers to a questionnaire of communicative problems were analyzed. The results were as follows: 1.For workers with V-typed audiograms: (1)Those who self-evaluated their hearing as poor , felt their hearing was getting worse, had tinnitus, wore ear-plugs more often, worked in noisy areas for less year, had more serious communicative problems. The predictability of communicative problems based on these five items were 43.53%. (2)The greater the loss of threshold at 1kHz in the left ear and at 0.5kHZ in the right ear were, the more serious communicative problems. The predictability of communicative problems based on these two items were 13.54%. 2.For workers with precipitous-typed audiograms: (1)Those who self evaluated their hearing as poor, felt their hearing was getting worse, had tinnitus, self-evaluated their communicative ability as poor, had more serious communicative problems. The predictability of the communicative problems based on these four items were 44.1% (2)The greater the loss of threshold at 4kHz in the right ear and at 4kHz, 8kHz in the left ear, the more serious were the communicative problems. The predictability of the communicative problems with these three items were 10.46% 3.About half of NIHL workers had moderate to severe degree of difficulty in hearing comprehension. About 10% of NIHL workers had moderate to severe degree of troublesome in communication. About 15% of NIHL workers had moderate to severe degree problems in communication.