Nursing Study to Examine Hearing Loss in Latino Construction Workers

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

U OF M NURSE-RESEARCHER WINS FEDERAL GRANT
Study to prevent hearing loss among Latino construction workers

Minneapolis/St. Paul (April 6, 2004) -- Madeleine Kerr, Ph.D., R.N., a researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, has received nearly $200,000 a year for each of three years in grants from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), a part of the National Institutes of Health.

Kerr will use the funds to develop and evaluate a hearing loss prevention program tailored to Latino construction workers. It is estimated that, when exposed to typical construction noise, one in four Latino construction workers will experience job-related hearing loss.

With more than 30 million U.S. workers exposed to hazardous noise, hearing loss is the most common occupational disease in the country., according to Kerr. "We've focused on construction workers because their environments are often quite damaging," she said. "For example, one study shows that the average 25-year-old carpenter has the hearing of a 55-year-old."

Kerr has conducted similar research to benefit English-speaking construction workers. The new project focuses on Latino workers because Latinos now comprise 17 percent of the U.S. construction workforce. "We are going to translate our work not only into the Spanish language," Kerr says, "but into the Hispanic culture."

Kerr says the federal government, by investing in this kind of nursing research, "can actually stop hearing loss before it starts - and stop as well the on-the-job danger, human suffering, disability, and costs to families and businesses that accompany it."

The Academic Health Center is home to the University of Minnesota's seven health professional schools and colleges, including the School of Nursing, as well as several health-related centers and institutes. Founded in 1851, the University is one of the oldest and largest land grant institutions in the country. The AHC mission is to prepare the new health professionals who improve the health of communities, discover and deliver new treatments and cures, and strengthen the health economy.

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing is the world's oldest continuing university-based school of nursing. A research-intensive school, it prepares approximately300 undergraduate and 350 graduate student every year in its B.S.N., M.S., and Ph.D. programs.