Development and Validation of a Screening Questionnaire for Noise-induced Hearing Loss

Background: An audiometric health surveillance programme can be perceived to be a relatively costly exercise and employers, especially in developing countries, might therefore be reluctant to undertake this. A questionnaire might be a cheaper alternative.

Aims: To develop a questionnaire to help determine the prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in the vernacular (language) of a developing country and to validate it against an audiometric standard.

Methods: A questionnaire was developed, translated and administered in a face-to-face interview. Otoscopic examination was followed by conventional pure-tone audiometry (at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz) for both ears of each respondent. The questionnaire responses were compared to the audiometric standard.

Results: Two hundred and fifty workers from three companies (two printing and one woodworking) participated in this study. The sensitivity of the hearing loss questionnaire in detecting noise-induced hearing loss was 32%, while its specificity was 79%. There was an evidence to suggest good agreement (r = 0.523) between the total number of years worked in noisy jobs and NIHL (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: The questionnaire developed in this study was found to have an unacceptably low sensitivity for noise-induced hearing loss and therefore cannot be a valid substitute for audiometry. Pure tone industrial audiometry needs to be used more widely than currently in developing countries.