An audiometric survey of Navy divers

The pure tone audiograms of a diverse group of U.S. Navy divers were examined across four major variables: (1) number of years of Navy diving experience, (2) previous noise exposure history, (3) previous history of barotrauma, and (4) type of equipment used, i.e. scuba and helmet. The results obtained suggest that these variables had only minimal effects on auditory sensitivity and that when the hearing of these divers was compared to a normal population of nondivers, no significant differences were detected. A comparison of these findings with those in the existing diving literature was then made.