Effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing in Increasing Use of Hearing Protection Devices Among Agricultural Producers.

Background: Agricultural producers are frequently exposed to noise that is hazardous to their hearing and cardiovascular health, and have among the highest rates of noise-induced hearing loss of all occupations. However, despite information-sharing approaches, few producers wear sufficient hearing protection. There is a need to develop effective methods of protecting producers from their noise exposure.

Methods: We provided a series of 2 to 3 short (30-minute) telephone-based motivational interviewing (MI) sessions to noise-exposed agricultural producers. We assessed intervention effectiveness through changes in measuring hearing protector use pre- and post-intervention using a one-group pre/posttest design.

Results: The sample ( = 29) predominantly consisted of crop producers from Michigan. The mean percentage of time hearing protection was used increased from 44.9% to 51.8% after the intervention, approximately a 7% increase =.105). Regression analysis suggested the relationship between intervention dose and use of hearing protection was not correlative.

Discussion/conclusion: There was a marginal increase in the use of hearing protection after the intervention, although setting-specific increases in use were uneven. Intervention dose did not correlate with a change in hearing protection use. Further research is warranted to determine the effectiveness of MI, how it compares to information sharing, and to identify intervention dose parameters that promote efficiency.