Abstract
Aims: To find out extra auditory effect of noise like headache, vertigo, tinnitus and difficulty in hearing on textile workers of Surat city who were exposed to high level of sound at their workplace and to find out their relationship with duration of exposure to noise. It was also tried to determine any relationship between degree of hearing loss and extra auditory effect of sound.
Materials and methods: 50 male Hindu workers of different textile mills of Surat City were examined by audiometry to determine degree of hearing loss and interviewed for subjective feeling of headache, vertigo or tinnitus. Age group of workers was between 20-50 years. Controls were taken from different parts Surat city. All were male and Hindu by religion, between 20-5- years of age without any of exposure to any kind of noise.
Results: Among 50 workers exposed to high level of sound, 30% workers had complained about tinnitus whereas among controls only 2% had complained about it. When tinnitus was correlated with duration of exposure, it was seen that with duration of exposure to noise >20 years (n=20) 55% workers were suffering from tinnitus, with duration of exposure 10-20 years (n=15) 20% were suffering from tinnitus and with duration<10 years (n=15) 6.66%had complained about it. As far as difficulty in hearing was concerned, among study group 14% had complained of hearing difficulty whereas the figure was 4% among controls. When relationship between degree of hearing loss and subjective feeling of hearing difficulty was calculated, it was found that 7 out of 9 i.e. 77.77% workers suffering from moderate degree of hearing loss had complained about hearing difficulties. No one with normal hearing or mild degree hearing loss had any problem with hearing. 2% workers exposed to noise had complained about headache whereas the no. was 4% among unexposed group. As far as vertigo was concerned, 4% workers among study group were suffering from it whereas it was 2% among control group. No one among study as well as control group had complained about any difficulty in speech. Prevalence of tinnitus was significantly high among exposed group which increases with increase in duration of exposure. Prevalence of difficulty in hearing between study and control group was statistically not significant, but relationship between degree of hearing loss and difficulty in hearing was highly significant. No signsignificant relationship between noise and headache, vertigo or difficulty in speech can be established.
Conclusion: From this study it can be concluded that noise has significant effect on tinnitus and difficulty of hearing is related with degree of hearing loss.