Aspects of professional functioning in employees with hearing loss

Hearing loss can affect work functioning. Employees with hearing loss may experience higher need for recovery after work or may not be able to fulfil hearing-critical job tasks. In the first part of this thesis, it was explored what hearing-related, personal, and environmental factors influence the difficulties of employees with hearing loss and how these factors interfere. Three factors were found to directly influence the need for recovery of employees with hearing loss, specifically ‘feeling that something should change at work’, personal adjustments, and the general health condition. In the second part of this thesis, effects of current rehabilitation practices were measured with tools that are currently used in audiological practice. A prospective study including adults with hearing loss revealed significant improvements in the listening effort and need for recovery after aural rehabilitation on group level, although improvement was only accomplished in part of the employees. In the third part of this thesis, the development of a new tool was described to evaluate the ability to detect auditory warning signals. A signal detection test was developed and validated to assess the ability of locomotive engineers to detect the auditory warning signals in Dutch train cabins.