Audiometric Notches in Noise-Induced Hearing Loss: 4K versus 6K as Related to Body Mass Index

noise exposed workers. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional analysis performed at an academic medical center. The pure-tone audiograms and basic personal information of noise-exposed workers were retrieved from the computerized database. The associations between age, height, weight, and BMI and audiometric notches were analyzed. Results: The audiograms of 4,598 ears from 2,299 noise-exposed workers were analyzed. Approximately one-third of the ears had notched audiograms. Subjects with left-ear notched audiograms had younger average age than subjects with right-ear notches. There was no significant association between the subjects’ height and weight and audiometric notches. The mean BMIs of subjects with left-ear audiograms with notches at 4K and 6K were 25.66±3.23 and 25.09±3.30, respectively; the difference was statistically significant (t-test; p=0.022). Conclusions: Subjects with higher BMIs tended to have left-ear audiograms with notches at 4K. BMI information may assist in predicting audiogram notch frequency, thus aiding in early detection of noise-induced hearing loss.