Study of the hearing in children born from pregnant women exposed to occupational noise: Assessment by distortion product otoacoustic emissions

Aim: To detect early on a probable hearing loss in children of women exposed to occupational noise during their pregnancy and to verify if there is any difference between the children from those women exposed to occupational noise during their pregnancy and the ones from mothers that do not work under the same conditions. Methods: Children from women exposed to occupational noise during their pregnancy and children from women who were not exposed were evaluated through distortion product otoacoustic emissions, using the GSI 60 DPOEA SYSTEM equipment and the frequency-ratio F(2)/F(1) equal to 1.2 and the geometric average of 2F(1)-F(2). The intensity of the primary frequencies were kept steady with values of L1=65dBSPL and L2=55dBSPL for F(1) and F(2), respectively. Student T test in paired samples and independent samples were used. Results: There were no differences in the response amplitude of distortion product otoacoustic emissions between the control and the study groups. There was no statistically difference between male and female children in response amplitude for the two groups aforementioned; and there were no differences between right and left ears from each group. Conclusion: We did not observe hearing impairment in children whose mothers were exposed to occupational noise during pregnancy when compared to the children from mothers who were not. There was no difference between the right and left ears, nor between male and female children in each group.