Part I: Factors inflencing professional functioning 39 Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work Three scale scores were derived from the QEEW, a generic questionnaire on psychosocial workload and work stress (Van Veldhoven et al., 2002). The sum score of each QEEW scale can be converted to a scale score ranging from 0 to 100. A higher score represents a higher level of the working condition. First, the primary outcome was operationalized with theNFR scale score that is composed of 11 items, such as ‘I find it hard to relax at the end of a working day’. An NFR scale score higher than 54 indicates an increased risk for occupational and health problems (Broersenet al.,2004). Second, the score on the scale participation at work was included as a workrelated factor. This scale consists of 8 items, such as ‘Can you participate in decisions about the nature of your work?’. Third, the score on the scale collegial support was included as a work-related factor. This scale consists of 9 items, such as ‘If necessary, can you ask your colleagues for help?’TheQEEWhas been shown to be reliable with good internal consistency and multiple studies have concluded good validity (Van Veldhoven et al., 2002; Van Veldhoven et al., 2015; Van Veldhoven & Sluiter, 2009). For example, the NFR scale has been shown to have good content-, construct-, and criterion-related validity in relation to work-related health. Amsterdam Checklist for Hearing and Work A 4-point response scale was used to inventory the occurrence of six hearing-related job activities, specifically detecting sounds, distinguishing sounds, communication in quiet, communication in noise, localizing sounds, and exposure to loud sounds. These questions on the occurrence of hearing- related job activities were merged into a value representing auditory work demands by calculating a weighted sum score. Communication in quiet and distinguishing sounds are considered to be the easiest hearing activities and received a weighting of 1. Detecting and localizing sounds are considered to be of moderate difficulty and received a weighting of 2. Exposure to loud sounds and communication in noise are considered to be the most difficult and received a weighting of 3. This score can range between 0 and 48. We did not only investigate the occurrence of the six hearing-related job activities, but also the effort they take. Since these six additional questions on the effort of hearing have good internal consistency (α = 0.81), we have calculated a sum score of these six items, further considered as subjective listening effort (LE). This score can range between 0 and 18.
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