Roles of A- and C-weighted kurtosis adjustment for equivalent sound level in evaluating occupational hearing loss

Haiying LIU; Linjie WU; Yang LI; Jinzhe LI; Jiarui XIN; Hua ZOU; Wei QIU; Tong SHEN; Meibian ZHANG

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Roles of A- and C-weighted kurtosis adjustment for equivalent sound level in evaluating occupational hearing loss

VernacularTitle:A、C计权峰度调整噪声等效声级在评估职业性听力损失中的作用
Author: Haiying LIU ^{1
,

2} ; Linjie WU ² ; Yang LI ² ; Jinzhe LI ³ ; Jiarui XIN ² ; Hua ZOU ⁴ ; Wei QIU ⁵ ; Tong SHEN ⁶ ; Meibian ZHANG ^{1
,

2}
Author Information

1. School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China
2. National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.
3. Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100013, China.
4. Zhejiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310051, China.
5. Yangtze River Delta Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Zhejiang, Jiaxing, Zhejiang 314006, China.
6. School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
Publication Type:Specialcolumn:Noisekurtosisadjustmentandpreventingandcontrollingoccupationalhearingloss
Keywords: kurtosis; frequency weighting; noise; equivalent A-weighted sound pressure level; noise-induced hearing loss
From: Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine 2025;42(7):793-799
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Background Temporal kurtosis (without frequency weighting, i.e., Z-weighted kurtosis) can evaluate noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). However, few studies have considered the function of frequency weighting (A- or C-weighted) kurtosis on NIHL. Objective To study the significance of A- and C-weighted kurtosis adjustment for equivalent sound level (L'_{EX,8 h}) in evaluating occupational hearing loss. Methods A cross-sectional survey was used to select 973 noise-exposed workers in seven industries as the subjects. The noise exposure of all workers was assessed by distributions of A-, C-, and Z-weighted kurtosis (e.g., K_A, K_C, and K_Z) and respective adjusted equivalent sound level (e.g., L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z). The significance of A- and C-weighted kurtosis in evaluating NIHL was evaluated by correlations between three types of L'_{EX,8 h} and NIHL, and improvement of noise-induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) underestimation predicted by the ISO prediction model (Acoustics—Estimation of noise-induced hearing loss, ISO 1999-2013). Results The median K_A, K_C, and K_Z were 68.33, 28.22, and 19.82, respectively. The binary logistic regression showed that L_{EX, 8 h}-K_A, L_{EX, 8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX, 8 h}-K_Z were risk factors for NIHL (OR>1, P<0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that when the outcome variable was noise-induced hearing impairment (NIHI), the areas under the curves corresponding to L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z were 0.625, 0.628, and 0.625, respectively. When the outcome variable was high-frequency noise-induced hearing loss (HFNIHL), the areas under the curves corresponding to L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A, L'_{EX, 8 h}-K_C, and L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z were 0.624, 0.623, and 0.622, respectively (P<0.05). The order of underestimation improvement values predicted by L'_{EX,8 h} for NIPTS₁₂₃₄ was: L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A(4.68 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C(4.38 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z(4.28 dB HL) (P<0.001). The order of underestimation improvement values predicted by L'_{EX,8 h}-K for NIPTS₃₄₆ was: L'_{EX,8 h}-K_A (7.20 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_C (6.83 dB HL)>L'_{EX,8 h}-K_Z (6.71 dB HL) (P<0.001). Conclusion The adjustment of A- and C-weighted kurtosis to equivalent sound level L_{EX,8 h} can effectively improve the accuracy of the ISO 1999 prediction model in NIPTS prediction, and compared with the C-weighted, the A-weighted kurtosis can improve the result of the ISO 1999 prediction model in terms of underestimating NIPTS.