Korean J Aerosp Environ Med.  2011 Aug;21(2):34-37.

The Hearing Loss in Korean Air Force Pilots

• Lim J
• Lee WY
• Yang SM

Abstract

Background
Military pilots have been frequently exposed to noise and hearing loss is common to them.To date, there have been few reports on hearing in military pilots in aerospace medical literatures. We investigated hearing loss in Korean military pilots in this study. Methods: We analyzed the audiometry data of 1,218 military pilots who had a medical checkup in Aerospace Medical Center in South Korea between June 2009 and August 2010. We compared audiometry results from those who had abnormal hearing according to the aircraft types and the side of ears. Results: 81 pilots who had abnormal hearing were all males and their average age was 45.1. Among them high performance aircraft pilots were 59, low performance aircraft pilots were 15, and helicopter pilots were 7. The helicopter pilots showed higher hearing thresholds compared with other aircraft type pilots. But, it was statistically not significant. The left ear had poorer performance than the right ear especially at 2 kHz, 3 kHz, and 4 kHz. The averages of hearing threshold level in right ear at 2 kHz, 3 kHz, and 4 kHz were 14.0 dB, 21.1 dB, and 35.8 dB and those of left ear were 16.7 dB, 26.7 dB and 41.8 dB, respectively. Conclusion: Our results were similar to those reported by Raynal et al. and helicopter pilots need more education and prevention for hearing loss. Although it isn't known why left ear is more vulnerable to noise, the military pilots must pay close attention to left ear.

Keyword

Military pilot; Hearing loss; Noise; Audiometry; Hearing thresholds