Ringing Ears Affects About ‘One Quarter’ of Australian Workers

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Analysis of a survey led by the Curtin University in Western Australia has concluded that around 25 percent of the Australian workforce will experience tinnitus, also known as ringing ears.

Tinnitus, the perception of sound without stimulus, is common and often is not a sign of a severe health problem; however, if persistent, it can disturb sleep, cause anxiety/depression, as well as impair a person’s quality of life according to the research team, led by Kate Lewkowski, an audiologist and research associate at Curtin University in Perth.

The research was done under the Australian Workplace Exposure Survey (AWES) from Jun. 7, 2016, to Mar. 20 in 2017 found that out of the 4970 respondents, 35 percent reported experiencing tinnitus.

“Of 4970 respondents, 1317 reported experiencing tinnitus (26.5 percent): 713 people had occasional tinnitus (14.3 percent), 259 intermittent tinnitus (5.2 percent), and 345 constant tinnitus (6.9 percent),” the authors wrote.

The research reported that constant ringing was more prevalent in males at 7.5 percent than females, who had a prevalence of 3.3 percent. The prevalence of constant ringing also increased in higher aged groups.

This finding was partially supported by a study conducted in the UK and led by the Institute for Epidemiology in Germany showed the incidence of tinnitus was dependent on age rather than gender, with an incidence of 11.4 per 10,000 people for those aged 60 to 69 but was 5.4 per 10,000 across the population.

Lewkowski and colleagues estimated from the survey that 2.4 million workers, around 24.8 percent of Australian workers, experience tinnitus, of which 5.5 percent experienced constant tinnitus.

Whilst studies conducted in the US and UK have mostly shown that the prevalence of Tinnitus is approximately 1 in 10, different studies in Australia seem to indicate that the prevalence of tinnitus may even be higher than reported, with the Health Direct reporting that 2 in 3 Australians experience tinnitus sometime in their life whilst 1 in 10 Australians experience tinnitus that impacts the quality of their life.

Nonetheless, with few studies on tinnitus prevalence in Australia conducted previously, further studies may be needed to determine the reliability of the results.

Consistent with previous literature, the prevalence of any tinnitus was highest for occupations more exposed to hazardous noise levels, with automotive workers, drivers and farmers being the three occupations with the highest prevalence of any tinnitus as well as constant tinnitus.

However, the authors argued that drivers are an exception, with the occupational group being the second most prevalent after automotive workers whilst being exposed to less hazardous noise levels compared to other occupations.

The authors reasoned that drivers are exposed to ear poisoning chemicals, including carbon monoxide, with 84.1 percent of drivers in Australia being exposed to the medium to high-medium levels of carbon monoxide.

Lewkowski and her colleagues interpreted that the higher prevalence of tinnitus in certain occupational groups suggested that “much of the burden of tinnitus is preventable.”

But the authors noted that to properly assess the prevalence of the problem, “a clinically validated instrument for categorising tinnitus is required, and modifiable risk factors should be explored.”