Background Workplace fatigue is a significant factor that can impact worker safety and productivity, particularly in industrial environments with high levels of noise exposure. Various types of hearing protection, such as earmuffs and earplugs, are commonly used to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, but their short-term effects on workers’ fatigue responses remain underexplored, particularly in workers who are just adapting to using earmuffs for the first time. This study aimed to investigate the short-term adaptation process to hearing protection devices by examining daily fatigue fluctuations during the initial exposure period. Methods The quasi-experimental study used the non-equivalent control group design approach. The study involved 33 workers in the Intervention Group (IG) who used earmuffs, and 67 workers in the Control Group (CG) who did not use any hearing protection. Data collection was carried out for 6 working days to see whether there was a significant effect of using earmuffs on fatigue among weaving workers. Results Weaving workers wearing earmuffs experienced a notable increase in work fatigue by the 4th and 5th days of the intervention period. Average fatigue increased from a baseline of 32.58 to 33.40 on day 4 and 33.48 on day 5. Conclusions This study revealed that fatigue responses among weaving workers can fluctuate during the initial adaptation phase to hearing protection. Although most measurement days showed no significant differences between groups, a transient increase in fatigue observed during the intervention period suggests that workers may experience a short-term adjustment when first using earmuffs in high-noise environments.
Setyawan et al. (2026) studied this question.