Occupational noise induced hearing loss in the mining sector in South Africa: Perspectives from occupational health practitioners on how mineworkers are trained

South African Journal of Communication Disorders

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Occupational noise induced hearing loss in the mining sector in South Africa: Perspectives from occupational health practitioners on how mineworkers are trained
 
Creator Moroe, Nomfundo F.
 
Subject Occupational Audiology; awareness; education; hearing loss; mineworkers; occupational health; health literacy
Description The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of occupational health practitioners (OHPs) regarding education and training of mineworkers on occupational noise induced hearing loss (ONIHL) and its impact on mineworkers’ health. Qualitative, in-depth telephonic and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 OHPs. Purposive and snowball sampling was utilized to recruit participants. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Three themes emerged from the data: seeing is believing, not my department, barriers and facilitators to raising awareness (with two subthemes -blame it on the language and level of education, and compensation pay-outs). Superficially, OHPs believe that mineworkers are aware of the impact of noise health, however, the OHPs are not knowledgeable on how the mineworkers are educated on ONIHL and its latent consequences. Furthermore, language, low levels of education and literacy, as well as financial constraints are factors found to affect education and training of the mineworkers about the risks of ONIHL. If the mining industry is committed in eliminating ONIHL, they should prioritize health literacy, and mines need to have an effective awareness raising plan in place at every mine. This plan should consider diversity of the workforce, including linguistic as well as educational level diversity.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-03-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajcd.v67i2.676
 
Source South African Journal of Communication Disorders; Vol 67, No 2 (2020); 6 pages 2225-4765 0379-8046
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/676/1137 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/676/1136 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/676/1138 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/676/1135
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Nomfundo F. Moroe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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