Tag Archive: noisy environments

On hidden hearing loss

Photo credit: mentatdgt from Pexels

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

This article by Alexia Hendrickson on About Manchester, a UK site, is a good primer on hidden hearing loss.

Hidden hearing loss got its name because people often complain of being unable to understand speech in noisy environments, but their hearing tests are normal. The auditory damage is “hidden,” because it is detected only by specialized research techniques.

Of note is the discussion about mild hearing loss in children being sufficient to interfere with learning. Hendrickson mentions some helpful tips, but to me the most important thing tip was missing. Namely, the best option is to prevent hearing loss of any kind–hidden or not–by avoiding exposure to loud sounds.


UK shops to offer “quiet support” to autistic customers

in a campaign titled the “Autism Hour.”  The Independent reports that “[t]he Autism Hour has been organized by the National Autistic Society to help draw attention to the difficulties that people with autism can face in noisy environments.” Autistic children often have difficulty dealing with loud spaces and when confronted with a noisy environment, they may go into a “meltdown.” To make shopping easier for them and their parents, beginning in the first week of October, “businesses will turn down music, reduce tannoy (loudspeaker) announcements and dim lights to help create a calming and less daunting environment.” Many major retailers have already signed up to participate, including Toys R Us.

Kudos to the National Autistic Society for getting major retailers on board this initiative. UK residents have been working on getting retailers to agree to trial a “quiet hour” program for some years, and some retailers agreed. With the launch of the Autism Hour campaign, one hopes that quiet accommodation is now a regular feature of retail stores in the UK. Meanwhile, Toys R Us has taken the lead in offering accommodation for autistic customers in the U.S., by simply modeling their U.S. program after their UK experience. Thanks to the persistence from those who need or prefer a quieter shopping experience, the U.S. is poised to catch up with the UK and offer accommodation for those who cannot tolerate noisy environments.

Age doesn’t matter,

you could have hidden hearing loss (and not know it). WMAR Baltimore reports on hidden hearing loss, a relatively recently discovered hearing breakthrough that explains how people who pass hearing tests have problems hearing in noisy environments.  WMAR interviewed audiologists about this breakthrough, who said that “why patients can’t decipher speech in noisy situations has been unexplained, but a new breakthrough is changing that.”  The researchers who made the hidden hearing loss breakthrough studied young adults who were regularly overexposed to loud sounds, and found that “hidden hearing loss is associated with a deep disorder in the auditory system.”

It’s never too late to protect the hearing you have.  Exposure to loud sounds damages hearing.  Period.


Why do elderly people with otherwise normal hearing have difficulty hearing some conversations?

Background noise to blame for the elderly being unable to keep up with conversations.  The Express reports on a University of Maryland study that found that “adults aged 61-73 with normal hearing scored significantly worse on speech understanding in noisy environments than adults aged 18-30 with normal hearing.”  The study’s authors stated that the “ageing midbrain and cortex is part of ongoing research into the so-called cocktail party problem, or the brain’s ability to focus on and process a particular stream of speech in the middle of a noisy environment.”  Because many older people who are affected by the “cocktail party problem” have normal hearing, the study notes that talking louder doesn’t help.  If an older person can see the person he or she is speaking to, visual cues can help, as well as the obvious–make the environment quieter.

Sadly, many restaurants, bars, and some coffee shops are just too noisy for older people to be able to hear well and participate in conversation.  Organized efforts to push back against unnecessary noise are gaining a toehold in the public sphere, but more needs to be done.  Until things improve, New Yorkers can find some respite by visiting our sister site, Quiet City Maps, for a guide to New York City’s quieter spaces (and a heads-up for places to avoid).

And don’t forget that if a restaurant or coffee shop is too noisy because of loud music, ask them to lower it.  If they don’t, leave and tell them why you won’t be coming back.  Push back starts with your wallet.

Link via @QuietEdinburgh.