Predictive validity of a retrospective measure of noise exposure

• Published in: Occupational and environmental medicine (London, England) Vol. 63; no. 12; pp. 808 - 812
• Main Authors: McNamee, R, Burgess, G, Dippnall, W M, Cherry, N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.12.2006; BMJ Publishing Group; BMJ; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Group
• Subjects: Acoustic data; Acoustic noise; Age Factors; Aged; Auditory perception; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiovascular diseases; Cigarette smoking; Ears & hearing; Effects of various physical factors on living matter (vibrations, electric field, ultrasound, sound...); Employment; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Epidemiology; Estimates; Exposure; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hearing loss; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced - etiology; Hearing protection; Humans; Information retrieval noise; Job titles; Male; Methods; Middle Aged; Noise; Noise measurement; Noise prediction; Noise, Occupational - adverse effects; Nuclear Energy; Occupational Diseases - etiology; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Occupational Exposure - analysis; Original; Predictive Value of Tests; Retrospective Studies; Smoking - adverse effects; Time Factors; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; United Kingdom; Europe; Human; Validity; Acoustic measurement; Noise; Cohort study; Predictive value; Occupational exposure; Occupational medicine; Retrospective

Aims: To investigate the validity of measures of noise exposure derived retrospectively for a cohort of nuclear energy workers for the period 1950–98, by investigating their ability to predict hearing loss. Methods: Subjects were men aged 45–65 chosen from a larger group of employees—assembled for a...