Comparative Study of Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions in Offshore and Onshore Seafaring Workers

Malheiros, Moara Karoline Silveira; Câmara, Volney de Magalhães; Garcia, Tatiana Rodrigues; Cavalcante, Dayane Calixto; Mendonça, Lucas Wilson de; Andrade, Maria Isabel Kós Pinheiro de

doi:10.1590/2317-1782/20202020178

person Moara Karoline Silveira Malheiros

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0002-7164-4300

person Volney de Magalhães Câmara

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0002-6596-6653

person Tatiana Rodrigues Garcia

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0003-1104-8344

person Dayane Calixto Cavalcante

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0001-9226-801X

person Lucas Wilson de Mendonça

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0002-9935-9595

person Maria Isabel Kós Pinheiro de Andrade

schoolUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil.

0000-0002-0836-4234

Conflict of interests: nothing to declare.

Endereço para correspondência: Moara Karoline Silveira Malheiros Serviço de Fonoaudiologia, Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ Rua Rodolpho Paulo Rocco, 255, Terceiro andar, Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil. CEP: 21941-913. E-mail:
moarakaroline@gmail.com

Author contributions

MKSM: Conception and project; analysis and interpretation of data; writing of the article; finally, responsible for all aspects of the work in ensuring the accuracy and integrity of any part of the work. VMC: Relevant critical review of the intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published. TRG: Conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data. DCC: Conception and project; data collection and relevant critical review of intellectual content. LWM: Conception and project; data collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. MIKPA: Participation as an advisor, conception and project; analysis, relevant critical review of the intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published.

Criterion		Offshore Group	Onshore Group
	Both genders	✓	✓
Inclusion	Age between 20 and 49 years;	✓	✓
	Report good audibility in both ears;	✓	✓
	Normal otoscopy;	✓	✓
	Being an offshore worker exposed to noise and/or chemicals in the workplace;	✓	✗
	Being an onshore worker with no current or previous occupational exposure to noise and/or chemicals;	✗	✓
	Minimum time in current position equivalent to one year.	✓	✓
Exclusion	Alteration of the external and/or middle ear; history of ear surgery.	✓	✓
	Report of use of ototoxic medication;	✓	✓
	Report of acoustic trauma;	✓	✓
	History of neurological, metabolic, or genetic diseases;	✓	✓
	History of measles, mumps, or meningitis;	✓	✓
	Hearing loss history;	✓	✓
	History of exposure to loud noise and/or ototoxic chemicals in an extra-occupational environment or previous function*.	✓	✓

Variable	Category	Offshore Group
Variable	Category	N	%
Exposure to noise	Yes	48	100
Exposure to noise	No	0	0
Exposure time to noise	≤10 years	28	58.3
Exposure time to noise	>10 years	20	41.7
Exposure to chemical subst.	Yes	39	81.3
Exposure to chemical subst.	No	9	18.8
Chemical exposure type	Not exposed	9	18.8
	Cleaning prod.	7	14.6
	Solvents, cleaning agents prod., oils and greases	16	33.3
	Solvents, cleaning agents prod., oils, greases, and vapors	16	33.3
Exposure time to chemical subst.	≤10 years	30	76.9
Exposure time to chemical subst.	>10 years	9	23.1

Variable	Group	Mean	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Standard Deviation	p-value
Duration	Offshore	50.4	60.5	9	124	29.5	0.000*
TEOE RE	Onshore	25.5	14	9	70	19.5	0.000*
Duration	Offshore	53.3	64.5	6	184	31.5	0.002*
TEOE LE	Onshore	35.5	24	9	161	33.2	0.002*
Duration	Offshore	48.6	35.5	19	183	35.3	0.001*
DPOAE RE	Onshore	31.7	19	19	132	25.7	0.001*
Duration	Offshore	52.8	44.5	19	144	34.7	0.003*
DPOAE LE	Onshore	33.7	19	19	132	26.7	0.003*
Number of frequencies that approved	Offshore	2.6	3	0	4	1.3	0.001*
TEOE RE	Onshore	3.7	4	2	4	0.7	0.001*
Number of frequencies that approved	Offshore	2.8	3	0	4	1.4	0.009*
TEOE LE	Onshore	3.6	4	0	4	1.2	0.009*
Number of frequencies that approved	Offshore	2.8	3	0	5	1.4	0.000*
DPOAE RE	Onshore	4.6	5	2	5	1	0.000*
Number of frequencies that approved	Offshore	2.7	3	0	5	1.6	0.000*
DPOAE LE	Onshore	4.1	4	0	5	1.4	0.000*

	Offshore group					Onshore group
TEOE RE	Mean	Median	SD	Min.	Max.	Mean	Median	SD	Min.	Max.	p-value
1.5 kHz	2.8	3.8	5.6	-11.0	14.2	6.7	7.2	5.0	-3.2	17.9	0.002¹*
2.0 kHz	7.0	7.0	6.6	-15.7	16.0	8.9	9.6	4.3	0.2	17.7	0.126²
3.0 kHz	4.3	5.1	6.6	-14.5	18.8	6.8	6.6	4.1	-3.8	15.8	0.055¹
4.0 kHz	2.2	2.0	5.7	-9.0	14.0	5.9	6.0	4.4	-3.3	17.1	0.004¹*
LE
1.5 kHz	3.9	4.5	5.0	-11.0	12.2	4.6	6.9	6.5	-14.5	18.9	0.327¹
2.0 kHz	5.7	6.8	7.2	-15.7	19.9	8.3	8.8	4.5	-2.1	19.4	0.091¹
3.0 kHz	4.2	5.7	5.3	-14.9	14.6	6.1	6.5	5.0	-13.0	13.7	0.076¹
4.0 kHz	1.8	3.1	5.7	-9.4	10.2	4.8	6.1	5.0	-5.3	18.3	0.033¹*
DPOAE RE
1.5 kHz	4.0	4.3	8.1	-12.0	23.0	9.3	9.5	5.8	-3.2	19.5	0.001²*
2.0 kHz	5.4	6.8	7.8	-18.2	19.3	9.6	9.5	5.3	-1.7	22.0	0.010¹*
3.0 kHz	5.6	7.0	8.7	-15.0	21.5	10.2	11.5	8.2	-13.2	23.0	0.008¹*
4.0 kHz	6.5	8.2	9.3	-16.6	23.1	12.2	15.2	7.2	-16.7	26.0	0.000¹*
6.0 kHz	5.6	5.8	7.6	-11.0	26.0	13.1	12.9	7.0	-7.0	27.0	0.000²*
LE
1.5 kHz	3.3	4.2	7.7	-11.3	14.6	6.7	7.3	7.0	-7.9	19.0	0.044²*
2.0 kHz	4.6	7.3	8.1	-18.0	19.5	9.3	10.3	7.2	-7.8	20.6	0.004¹*
3.0 kHz	5.1	7.2	7.7	-15.3	21.6	8.3	10.0	10.6	-16.0	22.0	0.002^1*
4.0 kHz	5.9	7.5	9.7	-15.0	22.3	13.8	15.2	7.7	-8.7	26.0	0.000¹*
6.0 kHz	5.9	5.7	6.6	-7.0	28.8	13.2	13.4	7.1	-6.0	29.6	0.000¹*

	Right ear		Left ear		p-value
	% Failures		% Failures		p-value
	Group Offshore	Group Onshore	Group Offshore	Group Onshore	RE	LE
TEOE
1.5 kHz	41.7	21.7	37.5	27.1	0.051	0.308
2.0 kHz	23.0	13.5	27.0	10.9	0.272	0.063
3.0 kHz	37.5	16.3	35.5	19.0	0.031^*	0.094
4.0 kHz	54.2	19.0	48.0	32.0	0.001*	0.150
Geral	37.5	2.7	27.1	10.9	0.196	0.063
DPOAE
1.5 KHz	50.1	21.8	49.0	37.9	0.007*	0.353
2.0 kHz	40.0	21.7	41.7	27.1	0.078	0.161
3.0 kHz	37.5	19.0	43.7	13.6	0.062	0.003*
4.0 kHz	37.5	8.0	39.6	10.9	0.002*	0.003*
6.0 kHz	54.2	8.0	52.1	13.6	0.000*	0.000*
General	29.2	5.3	35.5	10.9	0.005*	0.009*

[TFN100] ^*
For seafarers in the Offshore group, workers with a history of exposure to loud noise and/or chemical substances in previous jobs that were also offshore were not considered for exclusion