Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and objective
Noise threats health of many groups of industrial workers and causes hearing loss. Use of
personal protective device is the best control method to protect against hazardous conditions.
Hence, this investigation was carried out to determine situation of using of protective devices
and effective parameters on it, in Qom province workers community in 2006.
Methods
This research is descriptive-sectional study. Sample volume was designed 378 persons
working in factories in Qom. First of all, list of Qom factories with noise pollution problems,
were collected and 30 important factories among them were selected randomly. In the second
stage, 378 persons were selected randomly from workers. The interest information was
obtained by questionnaire and collected data were analyzed by SPSS software.
Results
The obtained results showed that, 83.6% of workers have been using ear protective devices.
296 of them, which were using ear protective devices, had an occupational hygienist in their
workplaces. This research also showed that, 109 workers that used ear protective devices, had
moderate knowledge level. Moreover, 82.5% of trained workers have used ear protective
devices. The statistical analysis of the results showed that there were no significant
relationship between use of ear protective devices and existence of occupational hygienist in
workplace, knowledge and age of workers, worker’s antecedent, physical health of workers
and kind of ear protective devices (p> 0.05).
Conclusion
These results showed that among all considered parameters; only four parameters were
effective in using ear protective devices; education of workers before employment, head
workman and employer’s knowledge level, factories facilitation and kind of ear protective
devices.