Chapter 7 156 The CPHI can provide a comprehensive overview of the coping behavior that is used by employees with hearing loss. It is hearing-specific, and may therefore be sensitive to detect change in the coping behavior of employees with hearing loss. The results of chapter 3 suggest that this is indeed the case, at least for the personal adjustments subscales, sinceasignificantdifferencewas foundinthepersonal adjustment subscales of 50 employees with hearing loss before and after aural rehabilitation. However, no significant difference was found regarding the communication strategies subscales. It is difficult how to interpret changes in CPHI score, because the longitudinal validity of the questionnaire has not yet been investigated. Also, a qualitative evaluation may be required to interpret CPHI change scores. For example, within the CPHI, little use of verbal coping strategies is interpreted as inadequate. However, using verbal coping strategies may be adequate in some cases, for example if sufficient hearing is accomplished after aural rehabilitation. Several aspects of the working environment are important to consider in employees with hearing loss, including the amount of noise at the workplace (Granberg & Gustafsson, 2021; Soli, Giguère, et al., 2018). Noisemeasurements can be performed to assess the amount of noise at the workplace (South, 2013). This is important in workplaces with high noise levels, for example to determine which preventive measures need to be undertaken (Sorgdrager et al., 2006; Tikka et al., 2017). Also, the amount of noise at a workplace can be used to estimate the likelihood of effective speech communication for normally-hearing employees (Houtgast et al., 2002; Soli, Giguère, et al., 2018). For employees with hearing loss, this likelihood can also be predicted, based on the outcomes of pure-tone audiometry and a speech perception test in noise (Soli, Amano-Kusumoto, et al., 2018). However, in workplaces with low or moderate noise levels – such as classrooms – noise measurements are often not available (Dreschler & Boermans, 1997). In chapter 3, it was observed that noise measurements at the workplaces of the included employees were not available. Using the Amsterdam Checklist for Hearing and Work (ACHW), the subjective amount of noise at the workplace was inventoried. The subjective amount of noise reflects employees’ individual sensitivity to the background noise present at their workplace (Kramer et al., 2006). To our knowledge, there is no standardized and validated questionnaire to assess the subjective amount of noise at the workplace. TheACHWalso includesquestions regarding the auditorydemands at theworkplace. Specifically, the occurrence of six hearing-related job tasks is inventoried, including
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw