Prevention

Current projects

• Understanding the consequences of recreational noise exposure
• Turn up, plug in, rock out: An intervention study to promote hearing protection uptake and sustained use for noisy recreational settings

Understanding the consequences of recreational noise exposure

Funder:

Medical Research Council.

Staff involved:

Chris Plack, Kevin Munro, Karolina Kluk, Rebecca Millman, Garreth Prendergast, Michael Stone, Hannah Guest, Carlyn Murray, Stephen Roberts. 

External: Sue Francis (University of Nottingham), Rebecca Dewey (University of Nottingham).

Project overview:

In partnership with the University of Nottingham, the research studies in our programme address crucial unanswered questions:

• Just how damaging are concerts, nightclubs, and earphones?
• Which parts of the ears and nervous system are affected? 
• Who is most at risk, and when? 

We test for hearing damage that would not show up on standard hearing tests, using electrophysiology, high-frequency measures, and brain imaging. Our participants include teenagers, concert-goers, people with tinnitus, and noise-exposed workers. Online listening tests let us look at hearing worldwide. Unlike most noise research, we track hearing over time, giving a much clearer picture of the effects of noise. 

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Turn up, plug in, rock out:  An intervention study to promote hearing protection uptake and sustained use for noisy recreational settings.

Funder:

NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRS), The University of Manchester, Medical Research Council, Manchester Centre for Health Psychology.

Staff involved:

Samuel Couth, Michael Loughran, Chris Armitage, Chris Plack, Mel Lough, Karolina Kluk, Anisa Visram.

Project overview:

Recent epidemiological studies have shown that younger and older adults are exposing themselves to noisy recreational activities (e.g. festivals, concerts, nightclubs, etc.) that have the potential to cause noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus.

However, only 2% of attendees in the UK regularly using hearing protection, and so there is a clear risk of hearing damage for the 34 million people who attend these events in the UK per annum.

The aim of this study is to provide empirical evidence on whether the provision of good quality earplugs leads to uptake and sustained use of recreational hearing protection behaviours, and whether additional behaviour change techniques can be used to further improve uptake and sustained use.

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