Noise-induced hearing injuries among military working dog handlers, 2012-2023.

IF 2.6 3区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health Pub Date : 2025-05-26 DOI:10.1007/s00420-025-02146-7

Jessica H Murray, Sithembile L Mabila, Edward A Sheriff, Alexis A McQuistan, Shauna L Stahlman

{"title":"Noise-induced hearing injuries among military working dog handlers, 2012-2023.","authors":"Jessica H Murray, Sithembile L Mabila, Edward A Sheriff, Alexis A McQuistan, Shauna L Stahlman","doi":"10.1007/s00420-025-02146-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Objective: This study examines noise-induced hearing injuries, among active component service members in Military Working Dog (MWD) handler occupations compared to active component veterinary personnel, military police, and all other active component service members between 2012 and 2023.Methods: A total of 3,373,990 active component service members were included, with 5,112 service members in the MWD handler occupation. 2,726 veterinary personnel, and 157,811 service members working as military police. Crude incidence rates and adjusted incidence rate ratios were calculated for any noise-induced hearing injury, as well as for significant threshold shifts, sensorineural hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, and tinnitus.Results: During the surveillance period, MWD handlers sustained the highest incidence rate of noise-induced hearing injuries (416.84 cases per 10,000 person-years) compared to veterinary personnel, military police, and other military occupations. Incidence rates of tinnitus were higher than other noise injury types for all occupations and were highest among MWD handlers (262.51 cases per 10,000 person-years). During the surveillance period, incidence rates of tinnitus among MWD handlers steadily increased from 2016 (150.37 cases per 10,000 person-years) until it peaked in 2023 (607.80 cases per 10,000 person-years). Regardless of occupation, the incident rate ratio of any hearing injury increased with increasing age and was highest among MWD handlers who were 45 years and older [IRR = 5.63 (95%CI: 2.89-10.98)].Conclusions: This study is among the first investigations into MWD handlers' noise-induced hearing injuries.","PeriodicalId":13761,"journal":{"name":"International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-025-02146-7","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: This study examines noise-induced hearing injuries, among active component service members in Military Working Dog (MWD) handler occupations compared to active component veterinary personnel, military police, and all other active component service members between 2012 and 2023.

Methods: A total of 3,373,990 active component service members were included, with 5,112 service members in the MWD handler occupation. 2,726 veterinary personnel, and 157,811 service members working as military police. Crude incidence rates and adjusted incidence rate ratios were calculated for any noise-induced hearing injury, as well as for significant threshold shifts, sensorineural hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, and tinnitus.

Results: During the surveillance period, MWD handlers sustained the highest incidence rate of noise-induced hearing injuries (416.84 cases per 10,000 person-years) compared to veterinary personnel, military police, and other military occupations. Incidence rates of tinnitus were higher than other noise injury types for all occupations and were highest among MWD handlers (262.51 cases per 10,000 person-years). During the surveillance period, incidence rates of tinnitus among MWD handlers steadily increased from 2016 (150.37 cases per 10,000 person-years) until it peaked in 2023 (607.80 cases per 10,000 person-years). Regardless of occupation, the incident rate ratio of any hearing injury increased with increasing age and was highest among MWD handlers who were 45 years and older [IRR = 5.63 (95%CI: 2.89-10.98)].

Conclusions: This study is among the first investigations into MWD handlers' noise-induced hearing injuries.

查看原文本刊更多论文

2012-2023年军事工作犬训导员的噪声性听力损伤

目的：本研究调查了2012年至2023年期间，军事工作犬（MWD）训导员职业中现役军人的噪声性听力损伤，并将其与现役兽医、军警和其他现役军人进行了比较。方法：共纳入现役军种服务人员3373990人，其中随钻处理员职业5112人。兽医2726人，宪兵157811人。计算所有噪声性听力损伤、显著阈值移位、感音神经性听力损失、噪声性听力损失和耳鸣的粗发病率和调整后的发病率比。结果：在监测期间，与兽医、宪兵和其他军事职业相比，MWD处理人员的噪声性听力损伤发生率最高，为416.84例/万人年。在所有职业中，耳鸣的发病率都高于其他噪音伤害类型，其中MWD处理人员的发病率最高（每10,000人年262.51例）。在监测期间，MWD处理者的耳鸣发病率从2016年（每万人年150.37例）稳步上升，直到2023年达到峰值（每万人年607.80例）。无论职业如何，听力损伤的发生率随年龄的增长而增加，其中45岁及以上的MWD操作人员的发生率最高[IRR = 5.63 (95%CI: 2.89-10.98)]。结论：本研究是对随钻作业人员噪音性听力损伤的首次调查。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

6.70%

发文量

127

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health publishes Editorials, Review Articles, Original Articles, and Letters to the Editor. It welcomes any manuscripts dealing with occupational or ambient environmental problems, with a special interest in research at the interface of occupational health and clinical medicine. The scope ranges from Biological Monitoring to Dermatology, from Fibers and Dust to Human Toxicology, from Nanomaterials and Ultra-fine Dust to Night- and Shift Work, from Psycho-mental Distress and Burnout to Vibrations. A complete list of topics can be found on the right-hand side under For authors and editors. In addition, all papers should be based on present-day standards and relate to: -Clinical and epidemiological studies on morbidity and mortality -Clinical epidemiological studies on the parameters relevant to the estimation of health risks -Human experimental studies on environmental health effects. Animal experiments are only acceptable if relevant to pathogenic aspects. -Methods for studying the topics mentioned above.