Factors affecting the use of hearing protection devices among industrial workers of Sistan and Baluchestan province

    Background: One of the personnel’s protection and control measures against injurious noise effects at work environment is the use of hearing protection devices (HPDs).   Objective: This study was performed to determine the factors affecting the use of HPDs.   Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 353 randomly selected industrial workers in Sistan and Baluchestan province who were exposed to more than 85 dB noise in 2009. Data were collected by using a validated questionnaire obtained from British Health and Safety Executive and analyzed by chi-square test .   Findings: The mean employment history of participants was 9±5.8 years. Based on our data, 28.3% of industrial workers never used HPDs during their daily activities. The most common cause of failure (29.5%) to wear protection devices was associated with experiencing discomfort while using HPDs. There was a significant association between the workers’ risk perception (P=0.05) and their knowledge (P=0.01) over the use of hearing protectors.   Conclusion: According to our findings, it seems that promoting the workers’ knowledge on risk perception associated with hearing loss and also improving the design of existing devices can lead to increased use of HPDs.