Beliefs and attitudes among Swedish workers regarding the risk of hearing loss

The beliefs and attitudes regarding the risk of hearing loss and their impact on hearing protector use were investigated among Swedish workers. A questionnaire, developed by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), was used. The study objective was to assess workers' attitudes towards using hearing protection devices (HPDs) and to enhance the ability of workers to protect themselves from occupational hearing loss. Ninety-five per cent of the respondents were aware that loud noise could damage their hearing, 90% considered that a hearing loss would be a serious problem, and 85% believed that HPDs could protect their hearing. However, lower percentages of workers always used the HPDs when they were noise-exposed. Fifty-five per cent of the workers indicated that they could not hear warning signals when using HPDs, and 45% of the workers indicated that they considered HPDs to be uncomfortable. These issues must be addressed to make HPD use more effective.