Interventions to prevent noise-induced hearing loss in farmworkers: a scoping review.
Laura Coco, Marisa Fried, Kevin Quijano and 4 others
PMID 41433189WHAT IT FOUND
Mailing or placing hearing protection directly on equipment improved self-reported use more than education alone.
However, objective hearing thresholds rarely changed in short-term studies, and many trials lacked untreated control groups.
Key findings
01Interventions that increased access to hearing protection devices, such as mailing kits or placing earplugs at high-noise tasks, were consistently associated with stronger self-reported use.
02Objective outcomes such as audiometric thresholds did not differ significantly between groups in several studies, likely due to the slow progression of noise-induced hearing loss and short follow-up periods.
03Only four of the controlled studies included clearly untreated control groups, with many using education-only comparators or multi-arm designs that complicate causal inference.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The review did not assess the methodological quality or risk of bias of the included studies, so the strength of evidence for any specific intervention is unknown. Most included studies relied on self-reported outcomes, which are vulnerable to recall and social desirability bias. Follow-up periods were frequently short (a few weeks to 3 months), limiting insights into sustained behavior change or long-term hearing health. The evidence base is heavily concentrated in the United States, particularly the Midwest, with minimal representation from other countries or low- and middle-income settings. Study populations were often small, predominantly White, male, and from specific rural contexts, limiting generalizability to other demographics or farm types.
Declared interests
None declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret increased self-reported hearing protection use as evidence that hearing loss was prevented. The review found that objective audiometric thresholds rarely changed significantly in the short term, and many studies lacked untreated control groups, making it difficult to attribute changes directly to the interventions.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →