Findings on the central auditory functions of endemic disease control agents

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the central auditory functions of endemic disease control agents. This cross-sectional cohort study comprised two groups: the exposed group, with 38 male endemic disease control agents with simultaneous occupational noise and pesticide exposure; and the control group, with 18 age-and sex-matched workers without occupational noise and/or pesticide exposure. All participants underwent pure-tone audiometry, brainstem auditory evoked potentials, dichotic digits test, and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions suppression effect. There was a significant inter-group difference in waves III and V absolute latencies, and interpeak I–III and I–V latencies bilaterally, with worse results found in the exposed group. Abnormal dichotic digits test results occurred more often in the exposed group, with a significant association between pesticide-and noise-exposure and the abnormal results (p = 0.0099). The transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions with suppression effect did not yield significant inter-group differences. It was concluded that pesticide and noise exposure induce harmful effects on the central auditory functions, particularly on the brainstem and figure-ground speech-sound auditory skills.