Download (Institute of Medicine) recommends national surveillance for OHL

National Surveillance
for Occupational Hearing Loss
SangWoo Tak, ScD, MPH
Geoffrey M. Calvert, MD, MPH
Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluation,
and Field Studies
NIOSH
CDC/DHHS
Chronology
 2005 – National Academy of Science
(Institute of Medicine) recommends
national surveillance for OHL and noise
exposure
 2006 – NIOSH Prioritized OHL surveillance
goals
 2008 – OHL surveillance project proposed
 2009 – NORA project awarded funding
Project goal
To conduct surveillance research to track
occupational hearing loss
To develop the first ever national surveillance
system on OHL
Where are the data?
 NHCA – audiometric service providers
across the US
 In December 2007, a recruiting letter sent
to all audiometric service provider
members
 Six providers gave a positive response
 Received letters of support from five of
these audiometric service providers
Audiometric
Service
Providers
Audiograms,
Noise survey data
Hearing loss
prevention
programs
Employers
Collection
National Data
Repository
Workers
Dissemination
Preventive
intervention
NIOSH
OHL
Surveillance
Stakeholders
Industry
Labor unions
State health departments
Practitioners
Scientific community
Interpretation
By industry
Analysis
Incidence &
Prevalence
Specific aim 1
 Collect audiometric data from audiometric
testing service providers to develop an
audiometric data repository
Tasks
 Recruit 15 audiometric service providers
across the country
 1st year: 3
 2nd year: 5
 3rd year: 7
 Retrieve historical data for those who were
tested at lease once from 01/2003 to 12/2008
 Identify a audiometric data repository system
Data elements
Demographic characteristics of the worker
1)
Unique identifier (will be assigned by data provider)
2)
Gender
3)
Date of birth
Workplace variables
1)
Workplace state
2)
Unique identifier
3)
Industry code and literals (NAICS 2002)
Audiometric testing variables
1)
Date of test
2)
Threshold for each pure tone frequency (500, 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K,
6K, and 8K).
Specific aim 2
 Estimate the rate of occupational hearing loss
and changes in hearing per year by industry
using NAICS codes*
 North American Industry Classification System
Tasks
 Data management
 Cleaning
 Quality control
 Protocol for data management
 Descriptive data analyses by industry
 Report dissemination
Specific aim 3
 Identify specific industries associated with a
high risk of occupational hearing loss in the
construction and manufacturing industry
sectors
Definitions
 OHL -- average hearing threshold of 25 dB or greater at
frequencies of 0.5k, 2k, 3k, and 4k Hz in either ear
 Standard threshold shift (STS) -- average increase from
baseline of 10 dB or more (pure tone test in the
frequencies of 2k, 3k, and 4k Hz in either ear)
 NIOSH defines STS as shift from baseline of 15 dB or
more at any test frequency in either ear
Tasks
 Comprehensive statistical analysis
 Risk ratios estimated for hearing loss (OHL
and STS)
 Multilevel analysis

industry level adjusted for individual factors (age & sex)
 Disseminate reports & at least one peer
reviewed paper
Outcome – 1st year (2009-2010)
 Initial contacts with 3 providers
 Data use agreement (between providers and
NIOSH)
 Industry coding
 Established a secure web site for data
upload/download
 Data retrieval in progress
Outcome – 2nd year (2010-2011)
 Recruit 5 more audiometric service providers
 Design NIOSH OHL data repository
 Continue audiometric data management
 Begin analyzing audiometric data
 Produce reports
Expected outcomes upon project
completion
This project is anticipated to:
 Measure incidence/prevalance of OHL
 Identify industrial sectors with the highest
rates of OHL
 Set research priorities
 Guide workplace interventions
Discussion -- Issues
 Data confidentiality is assured
 Audiometric data quality assurance
-- work in progress
 More participation is needed
Acknowledgement
 Mark Stephenson
 Christa Themann
 Theresa Schulz
 Thais Morata
 John Sestito
 Chandran Achutan
 Scott Henn
 Kenneth Rosenman
Contact
E-mail) [email protected]
Phone) 513-458-7117