A Compelling Case to Turn Down the Volume

Better Hearing and Speech Month provides audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech and hearing scientists an extra reason to promote our professions and issues we care about on a grand scale. This year is no different, and, as the current ASHA president, I enjoy participating in many of the outreach activities. For this first week of May, ASHA is focusing on the topic of our Noisy Society. This includes publicizing the results of a new ASHA-commissioned survey on attitudes and behaviors toward  hearing, hearing protection and noisy environments of U.S. adults ages 18 and older. One interesting aspect of the survey results is the astounding consistency across age groups, from millennials to baby boomers on up. The majority of respondents said hearing health is important to their quality of life. More than 80 percent categorized it as extremely or very important, including almost three quarters of 18- to 29-year olds. Results also revealed significant concern among adults of all ages about the potential effect of loud environments on their hearing. Forty-one percent indicated concern that past exposure to loud leisure settings may have harmed their hearing. And more than half expressed concern about future exposure harming their hearing. More than one-third said loud noise reduces their enjoyment of activities, such as going to bars and clubs, restaurants or movies. Sixty-nine percent of all participants said noisy environments make engaging in conversation dif...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Advocacy Audiology Speech-Language Pathology hearing loss hearing protection noise-induced hearing loss Source Type: blogs