Auditory Fitness for Duty: A Review

Background: Auditory fitness for duty (AFFD) refers to the possession of hearing abilities sufficient for safe and effective job performance. In jobs such as law enforcement and piloting, where the ability to hear is critical to job performance and safety, hearing loss can decrease performance, even to the point of being hazardous to self and others. Tests of AFFD should provide an employer with a valid assessment of an employee's ability to perform the job safely, without discriminating against the employee purely on the basis of hearing loss.

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to provide a basic description of the functional hearing abilities required in hearing-critical occupations, and a summary of current practices in AFFD evaluation. In addition, we suggest directions for research and standardization to ensure best practices in the evaluation of AFFD in the future.

Research Design: We conducted a systematic review of the English-language peer-reviewed literature in AFFD. “Popular” search engines were consulted for governmental regulations and trade journal articles. We also contacted professionals with expertise in AFFD regarding research projects, unpublished material, and current standards.

Results: The literature review provided information regarding the functional hearing abilities required to perform hearing-critical tasks, the development of and characteristics of AFFD protocols, and the current implementation of AFFD protocols.

Conclusions: This review paper provides evidence of the need to institute job-specific AFFD protocols, move beyond the pure-tone audiogram, and establish the validity of test protocols. These needs are arguably greater now than in times past.

Key Words

Auditory fitness for duty - auditory perception - functional hearing ability - occupational health and safety, speech perception