Findings on the Central Auditory Functions of Endemic Disease Control Agents

Patrícia Arruda de Souza Alcarás, Bianca Simone Zeigelboim, Maria Cristina Alves Corazza, Débora Lüders, Jair Mendes Marques and Adriana Bender Moreira de Lacerda
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Patrícia Arruda de Souza Alcarás: Audiology Department, Speech Therapy School, University of Western São Paulo, UNOESTE, Presidente Prudente 19050-920, SP, Brazil
Bianca Simone Zeigelboim: Post-Graduate Program in Communication Disorders, Tuiuti University of Paraná, UTP, Curitiba 82010-330, PR, Brazil
Maria Cristina Alves Corazza: Audiology Department, Speech Therapy School, University of Western São Paulo, UNOESTE, Presidente Prudente 19050-920, SP, Brazil
Débora Lüders: Post-Graduate Program in Communication Disorders, Tuiuti University of Paraná, UTP, Curitiba 82010-330, PR, Brazil
Jair Mendes Marques: Post-Graduate Program in Communication Disorders, Tuiuti University of Paraná, UTP, Curitiba 82010-330, PR, Brazil
Adriana Bender Moreira de Lacerda: Audiology Department, Speech Language and Audiology School, Medicine Faculty, Université de Montréal, UdeM, Montreal H3C 3J7, QC, Canada

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: This study aimed to assess the central auditory functions of endemic disease control agents. This cross-sectional cohort study comprised two groups: the exposed group, with 38 male endemic disease control agents with simultaneous occupational noise and pesticide exposure; and the control group, with 18 age- and sex-matched workers without occupational noise and/or pesticide exposure. All participants underwent pure-tone audiometry, brainstem auditory evoked potentials, dichotic digits test, and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions suppression effect. There was a significant inter-group difference in waves III and V absolute latencies, and interpeak I–III and I–V latencies bilaterally, with worse results found in the exposed group. Abnormal dichotic digits test results occurred more often in the exposed group, with a significant association between pesticide- and noise-exposure and the abnormal results ( p = 0.0099). The transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions with suppression effect did not yield significant inter-group differences. It was concluded that pesticide and noise exposure induce harmful effects on the central auditory functions, particularly on the brainstem and figure-ground speech-sound auditory skills.

Keywords: community health agents; pesticides; hearing; hearing loss; neurotoxicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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