Experience and Awareness of Health Managers, Administrators, and Workers on a Hearing Conservation Program in Korea: A Qualitative Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate
2.2. Research Team Composition
2.3. Research Participants
2.4. Focus Group Discussions and In-Depth Interview
2.5. Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Socio-Demographic Characteristics
3.2. Analysis Result
3.2.1. The Awareness of Hearing Loss Problems
I know there is a problem because we tend to focus more on death, accident, and injury, but it is quite demanding for us just to invest all our capacity to solve the noise-induced deafness issue. To be honest, the noise-induced hearing loss is not death by post-industrial accident.(Labor Supervisor 5)
I guess everything else too, but hearing is really related to the quality of life. There is a risk to any other disaster, but besides that, let us assume that I have been working in the heavy industry for 30 years (with hearing loss). And after retirement, my wife and I sit on the couch, but we can’t watch TV together. How low is the quality of life you have? Your family doesn’t have a conversation with you, with dad because he can’t hear you and understand you. When children watch a TV with dad, they tell him to watch it somewhere else because they can’t turn up the volume. So this guy is always lonely. He becomes a loner. It is not only just hearing loss, but also the quality of life itself gets totally worse. It does not compensate for any disability rating and rewards.(Health Manager 2)
It’s too expensive to upgrade it. I could only educate them (workers), give them some earplugs, and do some hearing tests.(Health Manager 4)
No one really cares about it, either they are big or small companies because it’s not on the surface level.(Worker 2)
3.2.2. The Overall Perception of the Hearing Conservation Program
If you hurt your eyes, then you go blind and can’t see right away, so it becomes a problem. But with ears, wearing hearing aids solves the problem on the spot, so it’s not on the top of the list. Nobody talks about it, so nobody makes a problem of it.(Worker 2)
If the D1 comes out, the company is interested in it, but not with C1 because they think that it’s not that big of the deal or they think it could happen.(Health Manager 4)
Noise is our top priority because it is one of the themes of the work environment improvement. The noise is too loud, so there is a section for noise in the task objectives, and we also have a separate theme for it. There is no direct cost-effectiveness for the noise part, so it’s not so easy to touch upon that. And when you actually work on it, just simply saying "improve it!" won’t do much, so the noise section is the trickiest one.(Health Manager 4)
3.2.3. The Opinions of Each Component of The Hearing Conservation Program
I put a noise sign up at a noisy facility, and I wrote down all the figures so that everyone is aware that ’Noise in this area is 90.1 decibels.’ I put it all over the noisy place. When I first put it up, some workers told me nothing good would come if the Ministry of Labor sees the over 90-decibel numbers visibly. Now, when the workers see it from a distance, they think ‘That field is over 100 dB. I should wear earplugs because it would be loud there.’ I did it anyway so that at least they could be aware of it and wear a protection device.(Health Manager 4)
As you said, it becomes an intellectual property for the establishment when they invest lots of money and get consulted to take measures. I think it’s a bit too much to force them to share that...(Labor Supervisor 3)
We use a urethane hammer, and it cost far more than a sledgehammer because when you pound the urethane one a few times, it cracks. Besides the cost part, the urethane hammer does not work for us realistically. You have to give it a big hit. When you hit a sledgehammer, you hit it once, but with the urethane hammer... It means you have to pound 10, 20 times.(Worker 3)
Earplugs, I mean, people all have different shapes of ears. You put the earplugs deep inside of your ears. You put it in, hold it for 1 or 2 seconds, and let it go when they inflate. Some people can’t wear it for long if they put it in like that. So some people can’t put it all the way in, just around the hole. Cause it’s painful.(Worker 2)
The workers didn’t like it. They said they already know their ears are wrong, so why should they continue to do the same test. They complained that they would rather have a practical solution.(Health Manager 1)
(So you have not received any special instructions about ear screening. And how much should you work according to your hearing?) No, I have not.(Worker 1)
The most motivating part of workers during the fitting tests was that they got to experience the effect of adequately wearing the device. We taught them that when they wear earplugs the way they are used to, the insulation of sound was only 5 to 10 dB. But they saw that the proper way of wearing the earplugs could create about 33 dB insulation of sound. We showed them that…(Health Manager 2)
There was no education, and nothing comes out when you actually get it from the company. They just say wear earplugs properly. That’s all.(Worker 4)
(Do you know how much of your hearing level changed in the past?) I kind of do. I get the figures twice a year. Whenever I receive it, I think to myself ‘last year I was 45 dB, and this year it is 50 dB. It got a little worse.’ That’s how you think. I do not have separate documentation for the figures.(Worker 2)
3.2.4. The Plan to Vitalize the Hearing Conservation Program
They have to study; they need to study. … At least for the short-term thing, go to an educational center. No falling asleep, get all the questions you had, and just chat with professors. Say “I don’t know nothing, what do I do?” just go and ask and ask again to the experts who measure… "What do I do? I got no idea…"(Health Manager 6)
The way you can enforce the domineering measure on small scale enterprises is that you first have to either assist them with the clean-business program or give them a monetary support measure. You can’t really cover all the workers working with noise in every establishment with prevention to follow up care. It’s not going to be like categorizing businesses by the noise level and give a different tailored solution. That is the biggest problem for me.(Health Manager 1)
I think all business owners must have a willingness to change and to move everything forward. The hearing conservation program also requires the willingness of the top executive to actualize it.(Health Manager 2)
The reason the program doesn’t work is related to the hiring condition of the health manager. Managers who need to quit their job every two years can never make it work. Health manager? There are numerous temporary workers. It doesn’t let you do any work. I could never have a devotion to my company, and it’s not even about the work environment. It’s impossible to go to the field when you can’t even do the simple screening and cover all the incoming patients. You don’t get to visit the field until you quit your job.(Health Manager 6)
It means that if engineering control is not taken, it will be repeated, and even if the program is operated, it will be a program with the same information even after several years. So in that part, if the actual employers do not open their wallet, the countermeasures cannot be made, and I think that those are the parts where you need to regulate the law a little harder.(Labor Supervisor 4)
I wish there are realistic ways to easily access the programs or simplify or replace the procedures for health managers or labor supervisors in the field.(Health Manager 4)
Basically, no matter how well the hearing conservation program is made, it’s meaningless if the worker or employer in the field has a hard time to apply it or do a quick operation for it.(Labor Supervisor 4)
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Classification | No. | Sex | Age Group | Years of Experience | Participation Category |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Health manager | 1 | Female | 50–59 | 32 | Focus group discussions |
2 | Female | 40–49 | 27 | Focus group discussions | |
3 | Female | 40–49 | 20 | Focus group discussions | |
4 | Female | 20–29 | 7 | Focus group discussions | |
5 | Female | 30–39 | 17 | Focus group discussions | |
6 | Female | 40–49 | 23 | In-depth interview | |
Labor supervisor | 1 | Female | 40–49 | 7 | Focus group discussions |
2 | Male | 40–49 | 7 | Focus group discussions | |
3 | Male | 30–39 | 4 | Focus group discussions | |
4 | Male | 40–49 | 11 | Focus group discussions | |
5 | Male | 40–49 | 7 | Focus group discussions | |
Worker | 1 | Male | 40–49 | 25 | Focus group discussions |
2 | Male | 40–49 | 17 | Focus group discussions | |
3 | Male | 40–49 | 25 | Focus group discussions | |
4 | Male | 40–49 | 19 | Focus group discussions | |
5 | Male | 30–39 | 14 | Focus group discussions |
Category | Subcategory |
---|---|
1. The awareness of hearing loss problems | 1-1. Lack of interest in hearing loss problems |
1-2. Importance of hearing loss problems | |
1-3. Difficulty in solving hearing loss problems | |
2. Overall perception of the hearing conservation program | 2-1. Priority issues of hearing-care |
2-2. Importance of worker’s hearing problem to health manager | |
2-3. Hearing conservation program not yet feasible | |
3.The opinions on each component of the hearing conservation program | 3-1. Noise measurement |
3-2. Engineering control of noise | |
3-3. Wearing hearing protective devices | |
3-4. Measuring of hearing threshold | |
3-5. Health education | |
3-6. Documentation and effects evaluation | |
4.The plan to vitalize the hearing conservation program | 4-1. Willingness and attitude toward health manager’s problem solving |
4-2. The necessity of management for subcontractors and small scale enterprise | |
4-3. Willingness to solve hearing problems of employers | |
4-4. The necessity of strengthening the administrative and legal systems | |
4-5. Improving the hearing conservation program for a smooth application |
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Share and Cite
Ock, M.; Pyo, J.; Kim, O.H.; Chae, C.; Ye, B.J.; Kim, S.H.; An, H.C.; Kim, A.; Park, J.O.; Lee, J. Experience and Awareness of Health Managers, Administrators, and Workers on a Hearing Conservation Program in Korea: A Qualitative Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 2302. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072302
Ock M, Pyo J, Kim OH, Chae C, Ye BJ, Kim SH, An HC, Kim A, Park JO, Lee J. Experience and Awareness of Health Managers, Administrators, and Workers on a Hearing Conservation Program in Korea: A Qualitative Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(7):2302. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072302
Chicago/Turabian StyleOck, Minsu, Jeehee Pyo, Ok Hyun Kim, Changho Chae, Byeong Jin Ye, Sang Hoon Kim, Hyun Chan An, Ahra Kim, Jae Oh Park, and Jiho Lee. 2020. "Experience and Awareness of Health Managers, Administrators, and Workers on a Hearing Conservation Program in Korea: A Qualitative Study" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 7: 2302. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072302