• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.168-176
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• 2011

Objectives: Hundreds of thousands of call center workers are wearing an acoustic device for their businesses, such as telemarketing and customer counseling, and the number of the workers are increasing sharply. Because call center workers always talk to dozens of customers over the headset, they would be placed under the state of a higher risk with their hearing ability. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that affect the hearing thresholds for the call center workers. Methods: This study investigated hearing losses of 101 workers of 5 call centers in Korea by executing puretone audiometry and self-administered questionnaires. A cross table analysis was processed to compare gender differences between male and female. Male and female hearing thresholds were compared with the Students' t-test, and one-way ANOVA was conducted to observe the difference between non-occupational and occupational characteristics in 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz hearing thresholds for the female workers. Additionally, multiple regression analysis was conducted to find the factors that affect the 4 kHz hearing thresholds. Results and Conclusions: Male hearing thresholds were higher than those of female except for 8 kHz. In the group having an ear related disease, hearing threshold of male left ear was highly affected rather than that of female in 4 kHz. There were significant differences in the variables of alcohol drinking (2 kHz) and headset volume (8 kHz) in both ears. While this study does not show any significant factors that affect the hearing thresholds in the occupational characteristics, the gender and the previous ear related diseases, non-occupational characteristics, were found as the factors in 4 kHz. It is suggested that the more detailed survey be performed to identify the occupational factors that affect the hearing thresholds in the call center workers based on the result derived from this study.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.21-29
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• 2007

The necessity for improving the English listening ability of Korean learners has been emphasized since the ultimate goal of English education converted to CLT(Communicative Language Teaching) in Korea. Verbotonal Approach as an auditory-based strategy has been proved to be effective substantially in maximizing the listening skill of spoken foreign language. The purpose of this study is to find out an efficient way of improving listening ability for Korean middle school students by employing OFH(Optimal Frequency of Hearing) using Tonality Word Sentence Test, before & after using Listen II Verbotonal training unit based on VTS(Verbotonal System). The results of the listening tests showed that the listening ability of the subjects increased by 16.7% on the words and by 5.5% on the sentences after using Listen II, compared with before using Listen II and that the improvement rate of listening ability on the level of words is much higher than that on the level of sentences. From the results, we can come to a conclusion that training the listening skill with words in mid-tonality and low-tonality based on OFH might give a great positive effect in improving listening ability for Korean learners of English.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Many studies have reported no benefit of sound localization, but improved speech understanding in noise after treating patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). Furthermore, their performances provided a large individual difference. The present study aimed to measure the ability of speech perception and gap detection in noise for the SSD patients to better understand their hearing nature. Subjects and Methods: Nine SSD patients with different onset and period of hearing deprivation and 20 young adults with normal hearing and simulated conductive hearing loss as the control groups conducted speech perception in noise (SPIN) and Gap-In-Noise (GIN) tests. The SPIN test asked how many presented sentences were understood at the +5 and -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The GIN test was asked to find the shortest gap in white noise with different lengths in the gap. Results: Compared to the groups with normal hearing and simulated instant hearing loss, the SSD group showed much poor performance in both SPIN and GIN tests while supporting central auditory plasticity of the SSD patients. Rather than a longer period of deafness, the large individual variance indicated that the congenital SSD patients showed better performance than the acquired SSD patients in two measurements. Conclusions: The results suggested that comprehensive assessments should be implemented before any treatment of the SSD patient considering their onset time and etiology, although these findings need to be generalized with a large sample size.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Many studies have reported no benefit of sound localization, but improved speech understanding in noise after treating patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). Furthermore, their performances provided a large individual difference. The present study aimed to measure the ability of speech perception and gap detection in noise for the SSD patients to better understand their hearing nature. Subjects and Methods: Nine SSD patients with different onset and period of hearing deprivation and 20 young adults with normal hearing and simulated conductive hearing loss as the control groups conducted speech perception in noise (SPIN) and Gap-In-Noise (GIN) tests. The SPIN test asked how many presented sentences were understood at the +5 and -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The GIN test was asked to find the shortest gap in white noise with different lengths in the gap. Results: Compared to the groups with normal hearing and simulated instant hearing loss, the SSD group showed much poor performance in both SPIN and GIN tests while supporting central auditory plasticity of the SSD patients. Rather than a longer period of deafness, the large individual variance indicated that the congenital SSD patients showed better performance than the acquired SSD patients in two measurements. Conclusions: The results suggested that comprehensive assessments should be implemented before any treatment of the SSD patient considering their onset time and etiology, although these findings need to be generalized with a large sample size.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.185-191
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• 2001

This study was designed to determine what components of spoken language have been relatively neglected in the teaching of listening comprehension in Korea and to suggest a model of listening process. Two types of tests were undertaken using spoken and written forms of English with secondary school teachers of English and college students. Findings: Hearing power has been generally neglected in the teaching of listening comprehension. Hearing power which can be thought as an active process is defined as an ability to transfer the sequence of discrete phonetic segments without word boundary into the sequence of words in phonemic representations by using both nonlinguistic factors and linguistic factors including perception rules based on phonetics and phonology. Vocabularies, hearing-speaking power, syntactic structures and idiomatic expressions are to be taught for spoken English. A model of listening process was suggested and discussed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.376-383
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• 2006

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHS), the well-known occupational disease, is caused by continuous excessive noise. The prevention of NIHS is very important, because it is unrecoverable. There are some kinds of hearing protection device (HPD), and those are effective in preventing NIHS. But workers in noisy environment often resist to wearing them. Because they are ready - made products, so workers feel uncomfortable to wear. Also, they didn't maintain the conversation frequency range, so workers are hard to communicate in wearing them. To prevent hearing loss effectively, it is important that workers keep wearing HPD. Therefore, a HPD is needed to be comfortable to wear and be effective not only in hearing protection but also in preserving communication ability. So we proposed a custom - made hearing protection device in which a small acoustic filter is inserted. We designed several kinds of small acoustic filters and carried out some acoustic experiments for measuring characteristics of filters. We confirmed that acoustic transmission characteristic can be adjusted from experimental results using designed small acoustic filters. And we researched for the actual efficiency of a new developed custom - made hearing protection device using a small size acoustic filter. Also, we found out that workers are more satisfied with the new development than a former protection device from a workers' response.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.5-10
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• 2007

Purpose: This study examined whether or not the balance performing ability of the disabled (blindness and deafness) is lower than normal people. Chronometry was used to compare the balance maintaining ability of blind and deaf subjects with that of normal subjects under the same conditions. Methods: In this study, balance foam, eye bandage, earplugs and headphones were used. The balance foam used in this study is smooth with slight elasticity and a convex upper side, 60cm wide, 15cm long and 9cm high. The eye bandage was used to artificially block the sight of the normal subjects, and the earplugs and headphones to block their hearing. Results: The mean time of the normal subjects standing with their eyes open, blindfolded and wearing ear plugs was 26.7, 19.8 and 28.7sec, respectively. The mean standing maintaining time for the blind and deaf subjects was 12.5 sec and 24.1 sec, respectively. The t-test result of the calculated mean time showed no significant difference (p>0.05) between the normal subjects and the normal subjects with their hearing blocked but there was a significant difference between the normal subjects with their hearing blocked and the deaf subjects (p>0.05). Conclusion: There was significance between the normal subjects and the normal subjects with their eyes blocked but there was no significant difference between the normal subjects with their eyes blocked and the blind subjects. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the deaf and the normal subjects, which corresponds to the report showing that sight has a significant influence on balance.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 2015

In the present study, we investigated ability of recognition of auditory perception with regards to the quality of voice in postlingual CI adults and proposed a training program to improve within subject reliability. A prospective case-control study was conducted in adults with 7 postlingual deaf who received a CI surgery and 10 normal hearing controls. The pre and post test and training program included parameters of consensus auditory-perceptual evaluation of voice(CAPE-V) with pathological voice sample by using Alvin. In results of pre-post test for monitoring improvements of internal reliability for listeners via the training program, there was statistically significant difference in both test and group. There was statistically significant difference in internal reliability between pre-post test in the normal hearing group, the result was no significant in the CI group. The present study found that CI adults showed less ability in awareness of voice quality compared to normal hearing group. Also the training program improved pitch and loudness in CI adults.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to develop the Korean version of Music-Related Quality of Life (K-MRQoL) for the elderly. The K-MRQoL consisted of Musical Ability, Attitude, Activity Frequency (PART 1) and Musical Ability, Attitude, Activity Important (PART 2). Each subcategory consists of Music Perception with 11 items and Music Engagement with 7 items. The validity and reliability of K-MRQoL were measured with Pearson's and Cronbach's alpha correlation coefficients and Independent t-test in total 30 elderly with normal hearing and 30 elderly with hearing loss from local welfare Centers and nursing homes. The correlation coefficients between total scores and PART 1 and PART 2 ranged from .701 to .948 and from .598 to .926, respectively. The internal consistency between total and Part 1 and Part 2 ranged from .846 to .931 and from .838 to .918, respectively. The test-retest correlations were .979, .970, and 979 for total, PART 1, and PART 2, respectively. The correlation between K-MRQoL and Quality of Communication Life Scale was .449. There were significant differences in total, PART 1, and PART 2 between the elderly with normal hearing and hearing loss. This indicates that the K-MRQoL can be used as a useful clinical tool to evaluate Music-related Quality of Life in the elderly with normal hearing or hearing loss.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.239-251
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• 2023

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of noise-filtering earplugs on the hearing ability of dentists wearing them during noise-induced dental procedures. Pure tone audiometry and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests were conducted at the initial visit and 1 year later to evaluate the hearing ability of the participants. As a result of the study, the pure tone average of the group wearing earplugs decreased significantly compared to the group not wearing earplugs, indicating an improvement in hearing. However, the signal-to-noise ratio of the DPOAE tests did not show a significant difference. These findings suggest that noise-filtering earplugs may have some effectiveness in preventing hearing loss. However, since the 1-year observation period may not be adequate to identify changes in hearing, a follow-up study with an extended follow-up period is necessary.