AWARENESS ON NOISE-INDUCED HEARING LOSS AMONG MECHANICAL & MANUFACTURING AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN FACULTY OF ENGINEERING,UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA, 2010

Abstract

Background: Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a preventable cause of permanent hearing impairment due to prolonged exposure to high levels of noise. NIHL can be prevented by avoiding excessive noise and using hearing protective devices.Data suggest that millions of workers are exposed to noise levels that increase their risk of hearing impairment and among these approximately 21-36% are in engineering occupations. This study aimed to determine the awareness and socio-demographic factors among aerospace, mechanical and manufacturing engineering students and the association between the three factors.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on all students from mechanical andmanufacturing, and aerospace department, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia. Data collection was conducted by distributing self-administered questionnaire to the engineering students. Data analysis was done by using Statistical Package for Social Science Software Program (SPSS) version 17.

Result: Of a total of 329 students, 285 (86.6%) students responded. We found that 68.8% (n=196) among the respondents had good awareness of NIHL while 14.3% engineering students, suspected to have hearing problem had poor awareness of NIHL. There was significant association between awareness and year of study (p<0.01).

Conclusion: The result demonstrated that engineering students who had good awareness experienced less suspected hearing problem compared to those who had low awareness. There was significant association between awareness and years of study. Therefore, it is important that engineering students should be given education on NIHL and hearing protection measures as early as possible during the engineering course.

Keywords: Awareness, noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), engineering students.