Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Ear Nose Throat and Head Neck Surgery, cilt.33, sa.1, ss.1-7, 2025 (Scopus)
Objective: Noise-induced hearing loss is the most prevalent problem in industrial audiology. In this study, construction employees who had spent at least five years in the industry and worked in a noisy setting had their peripheral hearing and balance systems. Material and Methods: This study included 34 construction workers and 30 healthy volunteers. The following tests were applied to the participants: pure tone audiometry, high-frequency audiometry, speech tests, speech audiometry, and acoustic immitancemetry. Each participant underwent the Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT), Videonystagmography (VNG), and positional tests to assess their balance system. Results: In the control group (n=30), 28 males and 2 females participated, and all males participated in the study group. A decrease in hearing threshold was observed in personnel working in noisy environments after 4000 Hz. “Acoustic notch” was observed in the entire study group (30/34). This effect was not observed in the control group. When pure tone averages were compared, a statistically significant difference was found between the study group and the control group (p<0.001). In high-fre-quency audiometry, a statistically significant difference was found between the study groups at 10000-12000-14000-16000 Hz. In the VNG test (pursuit-optokinetic-saccade tests), a significant gain-loss was found in the study group compared with the control group (p<0.05). No significant difference was found between the groups in terms of vHIT (p>0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of our study, construction workers are susceptible to the development of noise-induced hearing loss. It is recommended to use the VNG test in the evaluation of the vestibular system of people working in noisy environments.