Sensitivity and Specificity of Automated Audiometry in Subjects with Normal Hearing or Hearing Impairment.

Objective: To investigate the sensitivity and specificity in an automatic computer-controlled audiometric set-up, used for screening purposes.

Design: Comparison between standardized audiometry and automated audiometry performed in the same participants.

Study Sample: In total, 100 participants (51 females and 49 males) were recruited to take part of this study the same day they visited the hearing clinic for clinical audiometry.

Noise Exposure and Hearing Impairment in Air Force Pilots.

The goal of this study was to estimate noise exposure and hearing impairments in Swedish military pilots. It also aimed to analyze possible relations between noise exposure and hearing impairments. The study group was an open cohort of 337 male pilots.

Treatment of military acoustic accidents with N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC).

Objective: To study if the antioxidant (AO) N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) reduces the risk of hearing loss after acoustic accidents in humans.

Design: A retrospective, observational study.

Study Sample: Personnel of the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) exposed to military acoustic accidents during a 5 year period.

Declining and fluctuating prevalence values of hearing impairment in 18-year old Swedish men during three decades.

Objective: To analyze time trends in prevalence of hearing impairment in almost complete birth cohorts of 18-year old Swedish men from 1970s up to 2010.

Study Groups: Before 1999, all 18-year old men, in Sweden, were called for a compulsory conscription examination. In 1971-1999, the participation rate in audiometry was 73-95%.

Influence of well-known risk factors for hearing loss in a longitudinal twin study.

Objective: The aim was to investigate the influence of environmental exposures on hearing loss in a twin cohort.

Study Sample: Male twins born 1914-1958, representing an unscreened population, were tested for hearing loss at two occasions, 18 years apart.

Design: Clinical audiometry and a questionnaire were performed at both time points in this longitudinal study.

A demonstrated positive effect of a hearing conservation program in the Swedish armed forces.

Objective: A revised hearing conservation program (HCP) was implemented in the Swedish Armed Forces in 2002. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of significant threshold shifts (STS) in male conscripts heavily exposed to noise after the implementation of the new HCP, comparing the results to those of an earlier study from 1999/2000.

Design: The study was prospective and longitudinal, covering the period from reporting to military service to discharge.

The influence of military service on auditory health and the efficacy of a Hearing Conservation Program.

The influence of military service on self-assessed hearing symptoms and measured auditory function was studied as well as the efficacy of the Hearing Conservation Program (HCP) of the Swedish Armed Forces. 839 conscripts were recruited for the study at reporting to military service. They were all exposed to noise over the risk-limits from weapons and vehicles and used earmuffs and/or earplugs.

Self-assessed auditory symptoms, noise exposure, and measured auditory function among healthy young Swedish men.

The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of the exposure to ototraumatic factors and auditory symptoms, and to analyse the relations between these factors in a group of young healthy men. A total of 839 men, 19-22 years old, were recruited for the study when reporting for primary military service. A questionnaire was distributed and audiometry was performed.

Prevalence of hearing loss among 18-year-old Swedish men during the period 1971-1995.

Aims: To study the hearing of 18-year-old men by using screening audiograms obtained at military conscription.

Methods: The study group comprised 301,873 Swedish men belonging to six age cohorts born from 1953 to 1977 who had been screened at age 18 years from 1971 to 1995. The prevalence of mild to moderate hearing loss was investigated.

Hearing loss in young men: possible aetiological factors.

In the present retrospective register study a very large data base consisting of screening audiograms obtained at military conscription of 18-year-old Swedish men was used. The study group comprised 450,175 men, aged 18 years, tested at conscription to military service. There were nine age groups covering a 24-year period, from 1971 to 1995.

A study of hearing changes among military conscripts in the Swedish Army.

The aim of the study was to investigate the incidence and the relative risk of significant threshold shift (STS, >or=15 dB deterioration at any ear and audiometric frequency) during primary military service (7-9 months), and to investigate whether subjects with an initial slight hearing loss (thresholds>or=25 dB HL at any audiometric frequency and ear) were under increased risk. The investigation was made as a prospective audiometric study and included 747 men. An age-matched group of 138 individuals served as an unexposed control group, whose incidence of STS was 2.

Fatigue after work in noise - an epidemiological survey study and three quasi-experimental field studies.

The contribution of noise exposure to fatigue at work was studied in a survey study and three field studies. The survey study was based on a questionnaire covering symptoms and work place exposure answered by 50 000 state employees. Noise exposure was also estimated from their type of job and self-rated noise exposure.