Research Article
Demographic patterns of Acoustic Shock syndrome as seen in a large call centre
Ayugi John, Loyal Poonamjeet*, Mugwe Peter and Nyandusi MusaDepartment of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
- *Corresponding Author:
- Poonamjeet Loyal
Department of Human Anatomy
University of Nairobi, Nairobi
Kenya
Tel: 752381860
E-mail: kaurpoonamjeet@ gmail.com
Received date: July 20, 2015; Accepted date: August 13, 2015; Published date: August 21, 2015
Citation: John A, Poonamjeet L, Peter M, Musa N (2015) Demographic Patterns of Acoustic Shock Syndrome as Seen in a Large Call Centre. Occup Med Health Aff 3:212. doi: 10.4172/2329-6879.1000212
Copyright: © 2015 John A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Call centers represent one of the fastest growing industries in East Africa. However, there are health and safety hazards unique to this new industry. This field is underexplored for workers of call centers in East Africa and this study sought to establish the presence of acoustic shock syndrome, the age and sex characteristics of the staff involved and to determine correlation between duration of exposure and development of Acoustic shock syndrome. In a descriptive cross-sectional study, a total of 1351 employees, male 579 and female 772 subjects were recruited. They were screened for Acoustic shock syndrome. The age group of the subjects for this study ranged from 19-55 years. Those subjects with other medical conditions were excluded. The subjects were screened for acoustic shock syndrome using a questionnaire and the age, sex and duration of work was also sort. The total number of people with Acoustics shock syndrome were 385. This study has noted that 13% of workers at call centers develop Acoustic Shock syndrome irrespective of their duration of exposure. Males and females are affected equally. The peak groups affected are those with 3 and 5 years of work experience. Methods of noise measurement in such work environments need to be implemented so that a time weighted average can be established for protection of exposed workers.
