Estimating Young Australian Adults’ Risk of Hearing Damage From Selected Leisure Activities

Abstract

It is recommended that nightclub operators reduce noise levels, display warnings, and provide earplugs for patrons and employees. Health promoters should focus their attention on those young adults who are most at risk and provide them with targeted practical advice about reducing their leisure-noise exposure and avoiding hearing loss.

Changing beliefs about leisure noise: Using health promotion models to investigate young people's engagement with, and attitudes towards, hearing health

“…Survey questions (shown in Tables 1, 4, & 6) were designed to probe the beliefs and behaviour of young people and extended previous work looking at Australians ' participation patterns and engagement with hearing health behaviour (Gilliver et al, , 2013Australian Hearing, 2010;Beach et al, 2013aBeach et al, , 2013b.…”

“…Average L Aeq exposure levels for pubs and nightclubs (84 dB and 96 dB) were extracted from the NOISE database (http://noisedb.nal.gov.au; Beach et al, 2013b). This information was used to calculate the average noise dose for visits to each venue through conversion to ADEs (acceptable daily exposure) -a unit based on the workplace noise exposure limits of L Aeq, 8h ϭ 85 dB (further detail in Williams et al, 2010).…”

The Leisure-Noise Dilemma

“…Nevertheless, although the extent of the risk may have been overstated by some commentators, recent evidence (including "daily life" SPL measures) indicates that a proportion of young people are exposed to noise doses sufficient to cause injury (Beach et al 2013c). Beach et al (2013c) recently estimated that ~15% may be affected.…”

“…Beach et al (2013c) recently estimated that ~15% may be affected. Although more conservative (lower) than some suggestions, this still represents a significant proportion of the population.…”

Validación de criterio y constructo para la creación de un cuestionario de exposición a ruido

“…Recientemente, Breinbauer y cols 8 señalaron que la población en riesgo de presentar una pérdida auditiva permanente producto de la utilización de aparatos de reproducción musical portátil podría alcanzar el 12%. Estos autoresproblema, sin embargo, es probable que la magnitud del mismo sea incluso mayor si se consideraran otras fuentes de exposición a ruido recreacional, como la asistencia a discotecas, bares, karaokes o eventos deportivos, donde se ha reportado mediante sonometría elevados niveles de ruido 9 . En cuanto al uso de reportes personales (cuestionarios) para valorar la exposición a ruido recreacional, se ha observado que éstos presentan una alta correlación con las mediciones objetivas realizadas mediante dosimetría 10 .…”