Latest News
New iPhone app checks hearing
09.06.2010 An innovative iphone application that allows people to check their hearing has been launched by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). The scientifically verified Hearing Check app measures a person's ability to hear someone speaking when there is background noise, similar to being in a crowded room.
The charity, which represents the nine million people in the UK who are deaf or hard of hearing, said hearing loss can have a profound effect on a person's life. However, it can take up to 15 years for someone to take action about their hearing loss.
The new app is a version of its online PC or phone-based technology, which has been used by more than half a million people to check their hearing so far.
Jackie Ballard, RNID's Chief Executive, said: "This is a fantastic new way to encourage people to value their hearing and check it regularly. The Hearing Check application offers quick results and confidential advice from anywhere with a decent phone signal."
The RNID hopes the free app will encourage the 40 million iPhone users worldwide to check their hearing is within the normal range.
Source: www.computeractive.co.uk
When do people seek help for hearing difficulties?
02.06.2010 New research, the first of its kind, has studied illness perceptions in medically unexplained hearing difficulties. Medically unexplained hearing difficulties are common and account for at least ten per cent of audiology outpatient presentations.
The study, led by academics at the University of Bristol's Centre for Hearing and Balance Studies, explored illness perceptions with 100 people who reported experiencing hearing difficulties despite normal audiometric thresholds. This experience is referred to as King-Kopetzky syndrome (KKS), obscure auditory dysfunction (OAD) or auditory processing disorder (APD).
The paper, Illness perceptions and hearing difficulties in King-Kopetzky syndrome: What determines help seeking?, is published online in the journal, International Journal of Audiology.
Most people attending outpatients present with hearing difficulties in the presence of background noise but with normal hearing sensitivity. This is somewhat unexpected in audiology where normally the stigma of losing hearing is thought to delay people seeking help with their hearing difficulties until their hearing has deteriorated significantly.
The study measured peripheral and central hearing function and the illness perceptions of 100 people, half of who had sought help with their hearing and half who had not. Logistic regression was used to consider the associations between help-seeking and a range of audiological and illness perception measures.
The researchers found that people with the same symptoms who seek help and people who do not have similar audiological features but differ in the consequences that they believe about their hearing difficulties.
Help-seekers present with poorer speech in noise thresholds than non help-seekers, and that understandable illness perceptions and a negative belief in the consequences of hearing difficulties are associated with help-seeking status, regardless of hearing sensitivity.
Dr Helen Pryce, Lecturer in the Centre for Hearing and Balance Studies, said: "What is interesting is that a belief in negative consequences of hearing difficulties has a key role in determining whether someone will seek help as a KKS 'patient'.
"The psychological evaluation of these symptoms is crucial to people becoming patients. This suggests that psychosocial features are more important than audiological features in determining who will seek help with medically unexplained hearing difficulties."
Source: www.bris.ac.uk
Going to the Gym Shouldn't Be a Workout for Your Eardrums
21.05.2010 Listening to an iPod while working out feels like second nature to many people, but University of Alberta researcher Bill Hodgetts says we need to consider the volume levels in our earphones while working up a sweat.
Hodgetts, assistant professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, says his research has found that exercising in a gym often prompts people to turn up the volume to potentially unsafe levels for the ear.
The researcher found that the study participants, who were in a gym-like setting, listened at potentially dangerous levels while working out, likely due to the presence of background noise. But he says it isn't the listening level alone that's risky, it's how long a person listens at that level. What Hodgetts found is that almost half of his study participants listened for a length of time during exercise that put them at risk for hearing loss.
The good news? The solution is simple, he says: get better earphones, those that "seal" the ear canal, acting as an earplug and thus reducing background noise.
Hodgetts' mission is to get the message out that proper earphones will make a huge difference in auditory health while allowing people to enjoy music at a lower, and safer volume.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com
Educational Hearing Seminar Southeast UK
KIND Hearing, one of Europe’s largest hearing care providers and our official partner in the Southeast of UK is offering a free educational hearing seminar to everyone interested. The seminars will be conducted by qualified hearing aid dispensers with many years of experience and will be available to answer your questions and address any hearing concerns you may have. To reserve your place, simply call 0800 0835 815 or send an email to info(at)kindhearing.co.uk – limited places available.
Topics of discussion to includ
Enhancing communication and listening skills
Understanding common hearing issues
What to look for in a hearing care professional
The truth about how much hearing technology costs
Demonstration of the latest advancements in hearing technology
Complimentary lunch included, friend or family member welcome.
DATES/LOCATIONS
Maidstone – Kent
Friday, May 14th 2010 from 10.30am – 1pm
The Russell Hotel, 136 Boxley Road, Maidstone ME14 2AE
Click here for more information
Eastbourne – East Sussex
Wednesday, May 19th 2010 from 10.30am – 1pm
The Claremont Lions Hotel, Grand Parade, Eastbourne BN21 3YL
Click here for more information
Croydon – London
Wednesday, May 26th 2010 from 10.30am – 1pm
The Croydon Park Hotel, 7 Altyre Road, Croydon CR9 5AA
Click here for more information
People associate hearing aids with being old
22.03.2010 A recent survey has conducted that despite all the advances in hearing technology over the past few years, people still associate hearing aids with old age more than any other accessory, including wheelchairs, glasses, canes and crutches. 4,405 people, aged from 14-65 in the United Kingdom, America, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy were questioned. The top three reasons given for not wearing a hearing aid included not wanting to admit having hearing loss in public. Despite this, 93 percent responded that they would wear a hearing aid if it was necessary. The result of the survey shows the general misapprehension of hearing aids and how they are perceived in society. Despite the fact that hearing aids certainly improve quality of life, people still refuse them due to overall prejudices.
Source: www.audioinfos.org
Tinnitus Awareness Week 2010
02.02.2010 The Tinnitus Awareness Week is organised by the British Tinnitus Association. The BTA is hoping to reach thousands of people of all ages across the country while focusing on two relevant themes; the effect of stress on tinnitus and the risks of exposure to loud music. By raising awareness of these two important issues the BTA aims to encourage better hearing health and to highlight ways in which tinnitus may be prevented.
For advice, support and information about tinnitus call the BTA freephone helpline on 0800 018 0527 or visit the BTA online at www.tinnitus.org.uk
28.06.-04.07.2010 Deaf Awareness Week
08.01.2010 During this week organisations working with deaf people across the country are inviting everyone to 'Look At Me'. The aim is to inform on the different types of deafness by highlighting the many different methods of communication used by hearing impaired people, such as sign language and lipreading.
Over one hundred deaf charities and organisations under the umbrella of the UK Council support the Deaf Awareness Week which involves a UK wide series of national and local events.
Source
UK Council on Deafness
Early hope for tinnitus
08.01.2010 Research has raised the possibility of successfully treating the ear-ringing disorder tinnitus soon after its onset. Some forms of the condition are associated with spontaneous nerve activity in the brain.
A team from the University of Western Australia showed this activity is, for a time, dependent on nerve signals generated in the inner ear.
They believe it might be possible to treat tinnitus - for a limited period - by reducing these signals from the ear. Tinnitus causes an unpleasant ringing, buzzing or whistling sound in one or both ears, or the head.
The researchers, working on animals, found that this increased activity could be reduced back down to normal levels by reducing nerve signals coming from the inner ear. They achieved this in three ways: by removing a part of the inner ear called the cochlea, by cooling it down, and - crucially - by using drugs to block generation of the nervous impulses.
However, their work also suggested that after about six weeks, the increased nerve activity generated in the brain becomes independent of input from the ears.
This suggests that if tinnitus can be treated by dampening down nerve signals from the ear, it must be done swiftly before the condition becomes irreversibly established.
The researchers said further work was needed to find ways to exploit this potential window of opportunity.
Source
BBC News