Risk factors for hearing loss in naval military personnel: a review

Abstract Introduction: military personnel are exposed to noise in most of their professional activities. Objective: to identify risk factors and describe hearing damage related to noise exposure in naval military activities. Methods: literature review in Scopus, Web of Science and SciELO bibliographic bases. We searched original articles published from 2007 to 2017. The studies were classified according to the methodological quality Cochrane Collaboration criteria. Results: out of 47 studies, seven met the inclusion criteria. The selected articles showed that the naval military personnel’s hearing health can be affected by military activities. The studies confirmed that hearing loss cases increase according to the length of time spent in military and post-operative activities, both in combat and on board of ships. The hearing loss prevalence increases with age and time of exposure, and is featured according to the type of noise. It is more frequent among white men and reaches predominantly the hearing high frequencies, being of sensorial-neural type. Conclusion: the vulnerability of this group reinforces the need for implementing hearing conservation programs within military organizations in order to monitor and develop preventive actions aimed at this professional category.