Hearing Aids Reduce Self-Perceived Difficulties in Noise for Listeners With Normal Audiograms.

Objectives: This study assessed hearing aid benefits for people with a normal audiogram but hearing-in-noise problems in everyday listening situations.

Design: Exploratory double-blinded case-control study whereby participants completed retrospective questionnaires, ecological momentary assessments, speech-in-noise testing, and mental effort testing with and without hearing aids. Twenty-seven adults reporting speech-in-noise problems but normal air conduction pure-tone audiometry took part in the study.

Prioritizing the target audience for a hearing awareness campaign in Australia using the TARPARE model.

Hearing loss affects one in six Australians, and it is estimated that around one-third of all hearing loss is preventable. Over the past decade, there have been repeated calls for the development of a national campaign in Australia, aimed at raising the public's awareness of hearing health. We identified six target groups either at risk of developing hearing loss, vulnerable to poor outcomes as a result of untreated hearing loss, or lacking awareness of hearing health services, and applied the TARPARE model as a way of gathering insight into how a national hearing campaign might prioritize these different population segments.

The association between body composition, leptin levels and glucose dysregulation in youth with cystic fibrosis.

Background: Optimization of nutritional status is recommended in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) given the association between lower body mass index (BMI) and poor clinical outcomes. However, higher BMI and body fat correlate with glucose impairment and higher leptin levels in the general population. Differences in body composition and leptin levels between the categories of glucose tolerance were assessed in youth with CF and healthy controls.

The hearing health of live-music sound engineers.

Most studies of hearing loss prevention in the music industry focus on the risk of hearing injury to musicians. However, live-music sound engineers (LMSE) may also be at risk of hearing injury due to their work-related sound exposure. We studied 27 LMSE, all of whom underwent otologic examination, including audiometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions, speech discrimination and uncomfortable loudness levels, and completed a questionnaire investigating their history of sound exposure and use of hearing protectors.

Overview of laws and regulations aimed at protecting the hearing of patrons within entertainment venues.

Background: Recreational noise-specifically loud music experienced at music venues-has been recognized as a hazard for hearing damage and associated pathologies such as tinnitus. In Europe and other countries around the world, there is a range of regulatory and legislative approaches to managing the sound levels and minimizing the risk of hearing damage for those attending music venues. It is important to have an understanding of these different approaches to inform the development of future regulations and legislation.

Design and evaluation of the effectiveness of a corpus of congruent and incongruent English sentences for the study of event related potentials.

Objective: To design and evaluate the effectiveness of a stimulus material in eliciting the N400 event related potential (ERP).

Design: A set of 700 semantically congruent and incongruent sentences was developed in accordance with current linguistic norms, and validated with an electroencephalography (EEG) study, in which the influence of age and gender on the N400 ERP magnitude was analysed.

Study Sample: Forty-five normal-hearing subjects (19-57 years, 21 females) participated in the EEG study.

Does person-centred care improve outcomes for musicians fitted with hearing protectors?

To reduce the risk of hearing injury, musicians are often recommended custom-made musicians' hearing protectors (MHP). Studies report benefits of use however, many still report challenges leading to relatively low uptake and inconsistent usage. Person-centred approaches to health have been shown to improve patient outcomes, and these principles may be translatable to musicians' hearing care.

Applying the Hierarchy of Hazard Control to Regulation of Sound Levels in Entertainment Venues.

Excessive sound levels at events where amplified music is a central element pose a risk to hearing. Whereas noise exposure in the workplace has been recognized as a hazard for over a century, the potential harm resulting from recreational sound exposure has only become apparent in recent years. In occupational settings where sound levels are high, employers are required to implement risk-mitigation strategies to reduce sound exposure and protect employees in accordance with the hierarchy of controls.

Adults who report difficulty hearing speech in noise: an exploration of experiences, impacts and coping strategies.

Listening difficulties in noise are common, even in those with clinically normal hearing. There is a suggestion that subjective assessment of hearing difficulties may be more closely associated with listening effort and fatigue rather than objective measures of hearing and/or speech perception. The aim of this study was to better understand these perceptual deficits and experiences of this population.

Time to Listen: Most Regular Patrons of Music Venues Prefer Lower Volumes.

High sound levels are a feature of nightclubs and live music venues, and therefore pose a risk to patrons' hearing. As a result, these venues are often a focus area for hearing health promotion, and particular emphasis is placed on motivating patrons to take steps to reduce their noise exposure. In the current study, we approached this issue from a different angle.

The search for noise-induced cochlear synaptopathy in humans: Mission impossible?

Animal studies demonstrate that noise exposure can permanently damage the synapses between inner hair cells and auditory nerve fibers, even when outer hair cells are intact and there is no clinically relevant permanent threshold shift. Synaptopathy disrupts the afferent connection between the cochlea and the central auditory system and is predicted to impair speech understanding in noisy environments and potentially result in tinnitus and/or hyperacusis. While cochlear synaptopathy has been demonstrated in numerous experimental animal models, synaptopathy can only be confirmed through post-mortem temporal bone analysis, making it difficult to study in living humans.

Working Memory and Extended High-Frequency Hearing in Adults: Diagnostic Predictors of Speech-in-Noise Perception.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the main factors that differentiate listeners with clinically normal or "near-normal" hearing with regard to their speech-in-noise perception and to develop a regression model to predict speech-in-noise difficulties in this population. We also aimed to assess the potential effectiveness of the formula produced by the regression model as a "diagnostic criterion" for clinical use.

Design: Data from a large-scale behavioral study investigating the relationship between noise exposure and auditory processing in 122 adults (30 to 57 years) was re-examined.

Effects of lifetime noise exposure on the middle-age human auditory brainstem response, tinnitus and speech-in-noise intelligibility.

Recent animal studies have shown that the synapses between inner hair cells and the dendrites of the spiral ganglion cells they innervate are the elements in the cochlea most vulnerable to excessive noise exposure. Particularly in rodents, several studies have concluded that exposure to high level octave-band noise for 2 h leads to an irreversible loss of around 50% of synaptic ribbons, leaving audiometric hearing thresholds unaltered. Cochlear synaptopathy following noise exposure is hypothesized to degrade the neural encoding of sounds at the subcortical level, which would help explain certain listening-in-noise difficulties reported by some subjects with otherwise 'normal' hearing.

Caring for musicians' ears: insights from audiologists and manufacturers reveal need for evidence-based guidelines.

Objective: This study investigated clinical care delivered to musicians in Australia by audiologists and manufacturers of musicians' hearing protectors (MHP).

Design: Audiologists with experience treating musicians were invited to complete a survey on their service delivery. A second survey was administered to manufacturers of MHPs.

Personal Listening Devices in Australia: Patterns of Use and Levels of Risk.

Personal listening devices (PLDs) have the potential to increase the risk of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) for users. The present study aimed to investigate the nature and extent of the risk posed, by describing the user profile of a PLD population, identifying listening habits of that population, and examining whether PLD risk status is associated with hearing damage. A sample of 4,185 Australian PLD users completed an online survey about listening behaviors and hearing health.

The effects of noise exposure and musical training on suprathreshold auditory processing and speech perception in noise.

Recent animal research has shown that exposure to single episodes of intense noise causes cochlear synaptopathy without affecting hearing thresholds. It has been suggested that the same may occur in humans. If so, it is hypothesized that this would result in impaired encoding of sound and lead to difficulties hearing at suprathreshold levels, particularly in challenging listening environments.

In Their Own Words: Interviews with Musicians Reveal the Advantages and Disadvantages of Wearing Earplugs.

Background: Musicians are at risk of hearing loss from sound exposure, and earplugs form part of many musicians' hearing conservation practices. Although musicians typically report a range of difficulties when wearing earplugs, there are many who have managed to successfully incorporate earplugs into their practice of music.

Objective: The study aim was to provide a detailed account of earplug usage from the perspective of the musician, including motivating factors, practical strategies, and attitudes.

Development of Telscreen: a telephone-based speech-in-noise hearing screening test with a novel masking noise and scoring procedure.

Objective: In 2006 the National Acoustic Laboratories was commissioned to create a telephone-based hearing screening test.

Design: NAL developed 'Telscreen', a speech-in-noise test modelled on the Dutch and UK telephone tests. The first version, Telscreen I, had several novel features: individual scoring of digits; individual equalization of digit intelligibility; and accuracy-determined test termination.

Hearing protection devices: Use at work predicts use at play.

Use of hearing protection devices (HPDs) at work is widespread and well researched, but less is known about HPD use in high-noise leisure activities. We investigated HPD use of 8,144 Australians in leisure settings. An online survey asked questions about HPD use at work and leisure and examined whether age, gender, HPD use at work, and tinnitus predicted HPD use in leisure activities.

Modified spectral tilt affects infants' native-language discrimination of approximants and vowels.

This study's aim was to determine if 6- and 9-month-old infants discriminate approximants and vowels when the spectral shape is modified to emphasize high- or low-frequency information. Infants were presented with /r/-/l/ and /ɔ/-/ɐ/ in three conditions: (a) unmodified; (b) -6 dB/octave tilt; and (c) +6 dB/octave tilt. Six-month-olds discriminated /ɔ/-/ɐ/ in conditions (a) and (b), and /r/-/l/ in conditions (a) and (c), but 9-month-olds only discriminated when unmodified.

Providing earplugs to young adults at risk encourages protective behaviour in music venues.

For some young people, nightclubs and other music venues are a major source of noise exposure, arising from a combination of very high noise levels; relatively long attendance duration; and frequent, sustained participation over several years. Responsibility for hearing protection is largely left to individuals, many of whom choose not to wear earplugs. In order to encourage earplug use in these settings, a new approach is needed.

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

Objective: To investigate factors influencing young people's motivation to reduce their leisure noise exposure, and protect their hearing health.

Design: Questionnaires were conducted online to investigate young people's hearing health attitudes and behaviour. Items were developed using an integrated health promotion approach.

Noise levels in fitness classes are still too high: evidence from 1997-1998 and 2009-2011.

Fitness instructors routinely use high music volumes that may be harmful to hearing. This study assessed noise levels during 35 low-intensity and 65 high-intensity fitness classes in 1997-1998 and 2009-2011. Questionnaires examined instructors' and clients' preferred music volumes and whether they found loud music "stressful" or "motivating.