This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the prevalence of hearing loss and its risk factors among Thai naval officers. The subjects consisted of 149 males who were asked to complete a questionnaire. Audiometric threshold testing was performed at the audiometric frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 kHz. The noise levels and the organic solvent concentrations in the working environment were measured on a common type of gun boat. The findings revealed that 39.6% of naval officers had hearing loss. The noise level (LAeq) was 100.6 dB in the engine room. The organic solvent concentrations were less than the occupational exposure limit for organic solvents. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated 2 factors were significantly associated with hearing loss. They were age and service experience. The results suggest that the Thai navy should develop a hearing conservation program for naval officers on coastal patrol crafts.

This study aimed to clarify the prevalence of hearing loss and its risk factors among Thai naval divers. The participants were 263 military divers in the Royal Thai Navy, aged 22 to 55 years. The participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire and to undergo the examinations on hearing acuity and physical measurement. The average diving year was 16.1 years. The participants dived 2.1 times a week until to 132.3 fsw (4-5 ata) in average. Sixty-one percent of them had hearing loss. In order to determine the diving exposure dose for the participants, total diving depth was calculated from diving years, diving times a week and maximal diving depth. Multiple linear regression analysis showed the hearing level associated with total diving depth and the experience of no-decompression diving. This result suggests that the Royal Thai Navy should manage diving conditions for conserving hearing acuity of Thai naval divers.