Detection of hearing loss in pilots

Hayriye Atalay, Detection of Hearing Loss in Pilots, Başkent Universtiy Instute of Health Sciences M. Sc. Thesis Audiology and Speech-Voice Disorders, 2014. Aim:With an increasing trend of the air traffic in aviation, high noise levels of aircrafts and instant pressure drops in atmospheric conditions lead to severe hearing loss for pilots. The main goal of this research is to obtain hearing loss because of the total flight hours, age, types of aircrafts such as helicopter and jet and to evaluate the effects of some illnesses that influence the hearing level, namely: diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol, smoking habit, anemia, obesity. Method: 234 patient's files that include the routine health control due to Aviation Law are used for this thesis. According to these files, all patients are pilot, male, among 25-54 ages. Also, whole data have been collected between January 2005 and January 2014. Audiometric tests and Biochemical analysis results that had been carried out were chosen for this research. As a result of audiometric tests, several frequencies such as 1 KHz, 2 KHz, 3 KHz, 4 KHz, 6 KHz and 8 KHz were used for airway threshold whereas 1 KHz, 2 KHz and 4 KHz were used for bone conduction threshold. According to OSHA 1983, thresholds which are perceived as hearing loss, accepted as mean values within the correction factors. Findings: According to 234 pilot's data, there is a significant correlation between the high frequency hearing loss and the total flight hours and pilots' ages. Within the types of planes; the results are logical for left ears. For the chopper pilots; average hearing threshold is higher than other types of flyers. But, it can not be easily said that there is a relation between hearing loss and illnesses (such as; diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol, smoking habit, anemia, obesity). Conclusion: The goal of this research is to specify the level of hearing loss for pilots. As a result of this thesis, it is observed that there is a significant correlation between the high frequency hearing loss and total flight hours, pilot's age and the type of plane. Keywords: Pilot, Aviation, Noise, Barotrauma, hearing loss