Clinicians, hearing care professionals and Health & Safety service providers have a major role to play
Reducing the prevalence of hearing loss necessitates a comprehensive and coherent approach. On the one hand, it requires integrating hearing surveillance into clinical practice and community outreach programs. On the other hand, it calls for occupational hearing loss prevention programs to raise awareness and encourage protective behaviour when employees are exposed to noise at work.
Clinicians can ask their patients about noise exposures and listening habits and provide recommendations to reduce risk. Expanding the test battery for at-risk clients (e.g., OAEs) can be helpful to identify signs of early hearing changes requiring intervention.
Hearing care professionals can help their noise-exposed patients select appropriate hearing protection and provide fit testing for hearing protectors. Furthermore, they can look for outreach opportunities to raise awareness of the importance preserving good hearing; for example, offer hearing screenings at health fairs or visit schools to discuss hearing health and measure output of personal listening devices.
Health & Safety service providers can extend their efforts beyond the workplace and broaden the scope of their hearing conservation program with non-work-related risks.; for example, wearing hearing protection during DIY or music festivals
