{"id":633,"date":"2015-03-16T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/?p=633"},"modified":"2017-08-21T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T11:56:00","slug":"primary-care-corner-with-geoffrey-modest-md-hearing-loss-prevention-in-teensyoung-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/2015\/03\/16\/primary-care-corner-with-geoffrey-modest-md-hearing-loss-prevention-in-teensyoung-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary Care Corner with Geoffrey Modest MD: Hearing loss prevention in teens\/young adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"noise\"<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization just highlighted “a serious threat posed by exposure to recreational noise”, with 1.1 billion people at risk of hearing loss. These are mostly teenagers and young adults who unsafely use personal audio devices (eg smartphones) and are exposed to\u00a0damaging levels of sound at nightclubs, bars, sporting events. For\u00a0people aged 12-35\u00a0in middle- and high-income countries,\u00a0“nearly 50% are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal audio devices and around 40% are exposed to potentially damaging levels of sound at entertainment venues”, which is defined as exposures >85 db for 8 hours, or 100\u00a0db for 15 minutes. (see\u00a0the WHO news release<\/a>). and, we all know that once hearing loss occurs, it doesn’t come back….<\/p>\n

Their recommendations:<\/p>\n

–highest level of workplace noise exposure is 85db for up to a maximum of 8 hours<\/p>\n

–teenagers and young adults should keep the volume down on personal audio devices, wearing earplugs at noisy venues, and using fitted noise-cancelling earphones\/headphones. also, take short listening breaks and restrict daily use of personal audio devices to < 1 hour [good luck with that recommendation…]<\/p>\n

–governments should have a role in developing and enforcing strict legislation on noise exposures.<\/p>\n

As a point of reference, see graph<\/a>. of note, a 10db increase in noise level is a doubling of subjective sound.<\/p>\n

So, I do realize that teenagers are likely remarkably unresponsive to this message (and, I personally\u00a0have a “rock-and-roll” notch in my audiogram, reflecting listening to loud music as a “invulnerable” teen). But it does make sense for us as providers to discuss excessive noise issues\u00a0with teens and young adults, and it would really be helpful if there were a broad\u00a0public health initiative to decrease noise exposures. It turns out that March 3rd was International Ear Care Day, and\u00a0WHO was launching the “Make Listening Safe” initiative to mark that event. \u00a0And, of course, it is not just young people who may suffer permanent hearing loss:\u00a0many workers are in very loud work environments with similar threats to their future hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest The World Health Organization just highlighted “a serious threat posed by exposure to recreational noise”, with 1.1 billion people at risk of hearing loss. These are mostly teenagers and young adults who unsafely use personal audio devices (eg smartphones) and are exposed to\u00a0damaging levels of sound at nightclubs, bars, sporting events. […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}