University Marching Band Members' Noise Dosages and Hearing Health-Related Knowledge

Barriers To and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services Among Collegiate Marching Band Artists

CONTEXT

Marching band (MB) artists experience stressors influencing their physical, mental, and emotional health warranting medical support, and they face challenges similar to those of other college students and athletes. Mental health illnesses exist in collegiate and MB settings, but barriers affect access to treatment.

OBJECTIVES

To examine MB artists' perceived barriers to and attitudes toward seeking care from mental health professionals. The secondary aim was to explore barriers to and attitudes about seeking mental health counseling between genders and history of pursuing mental health counseling.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Online survey.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

A total of 534 MB artists (women = 312, men = 222; age = 19.7 ± 1.4 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

Participants completed surveys on demographics and past medical history along with the Barriers to Help Seeking Checklist, the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form Scale (ATSPPH-SF), and the Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS). Descriptive statistics were calculated to assess demographic data. Cross-tabulations and χ2 statistics were used to evaluate individual barriers (Barriers to Help Seeking Checklist) between genders. Scales were scored 1 to 7 and 10 to 30 on the MHSAS and ATSPPH-SF, respectively. A 1-way analysis of variance measured differences in the total mean score on the ATSPPH-SF between genders.

RESULTS

The highest barrier reported was lack of time to seek services (69.1%; n = 369), followed by 47.6% (n = 254) for services not available during my free time. Average scores were 4.0 ± 0.4 on the MHSAS (indicating neutral attitudes toward seeking help) and 17.97 ± 5.48 on the ATSPPH-SF (indicating slightly positive attitudes to seeking help). No differences were seen for the total mean scores on the MHSAS and ATSPPH-SF between genders.

CONCLUSIONS

Marching band artists' barriers to and attitudes toward mental health care influenced their ability to seek care in times of need and demonstrated some similarities to those of collegiate athletes. Awareness of the obstacles MB artists face in receiving mental health care will assist health care providers in advocating for improved care in this setting.

Associations Between Recreational Noise Exposure and Hearing Function in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review

PURPOSE

There is an increasing concern regarding hazardous recreational noise exposure among adolescents and young adults. Daily exposure to loud sound levels over a long period of time can increase the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. The full extent of the impact of recreational noise on hearing is not yet fully understood. The purpose of this review was to synthesize research that investigated hearing function in relation to recreational noise exposure in adolescents and young adults.

METHOD

A systematic literature search of five databases covering the years 2000-2023 was performed. The articles included investigated audiological measurements of hearing function in relation to recreational noise exposure.

RESULTS

Four hundred sixty records were identified, of which 20 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the results. This review showed that although some recreational noise activities can be potentially harmful, there is an unclear relationship between exposure and outcome. Some findings indicated hearing threshold shifts or reduced otoacoustic emission amplitudes after recreational noise exposure, but most changes were short term and in the extended high-frequency range.

CONCLUSIONS

There seemed to be inconsistencies regarding the utilization of methods of measuring exposure and outcome between studies. This might be one reason for the differing results in studies on the reported impact on hearing function from recreational noise exposure. To draw more certain conclusions about long-term effects, there is a need for longitudinal research that utilizes sound level measurements to assess low and high degrees of recreational noise exposure in relation to hearing function.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25114193.

Prevalence and global estimates of unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from exposure to personal listening devices (PLDs) and loud entertainment venues in individuals aged 12-34 years, and to estimate the number of young people who could be at risk of hearing loss from unsafe listening worldwide.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from PLDs and loud entertainment venues. We searched three databases for peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2021 that reported unsafe listening practices in individuals aged 12-34 years. Pooled prevalence estimates (95% CI) of exposed populations were calculated using random effects models or ascertained from the systematic review. The number of young people who could be at risk of hearing loss worldwide was estimated from the estimated global population aged 12-34 years, and best estimates of exposure to unsafe listening ascertained from this review.

RESULTS

Thirty-three studies (corresponding to data from 35 records and 19 046 individuals) were included; 17 and 18 records focused on PLD use and loud entertainment venues, respectively. The pooled prevalence estimate of exposure to unsafe listening from PLDs was 23.81% (95% CI 18.99% to 29.42%). There was limited certainty (p>0.50) in our pooled prevalence estimate for loud entertainment venues. Thus, we fitted a model as a function of intensity thresholds and exposure duration to identify the prevalence estimate as 48.20%. The global estimated number of young people who could be at risk of hearing loss from exposure to unsafe listening practices ranged from 0.67 to 1.35 billion.

CONCLUSIONS

Unsafe listening practices are highly prevalent worldwide and may place over 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss. There is an urgent need to prioritise policy focused on safe listening. The World Health Organization provides comprehensive materials to aid in policy development and implementation.

Frequency-Following Response to Steady-State Vowel in Quiet and Background Noise Among Marching Band Participants With Normal Hearing

OBJECTIVE

Human studies enrolling individuals at high risk for cochlear synaptopathy (CS) have reported difficulties in speech perception in adverse listening conditions. The aim of this study is to determine if these individuals show a degradation in the neural encoding of speech in quiet and in the presence of background noise as reflected in neural phase-locking to both envelope periodicity and temporal fine structure (TFS). To our knowledge, there are no published reports that have specifically examined the neural encoding of both envelope periodicity and TFS of speech stimuli (in quiet and in adverse listening conditions) among a sample with loud-sound exposure history who are at risk for CS.

METHOD

Using scalp-recorded frequency-following response (FFR), the authors evaluated the neural encoding of envelope periodicity (FFR_ENV) and TFS (FFR_TFS) for a steady-state vowel (English back vowel /u/) in quiet and in the presence of speech-shaped noise presented at +5- and 0 dB SNR. Participants were young individuals with normal hearing who participated in the marching band for at least 5 years (high-risk group) and non-marching band group with low-noise exposure history (low-risk group).

RESULTS

The results showed no group differences in the neural encoding of either the FFR_ENV or the first formant (F1) in the FFR_TFS in quiet and in noise. Paradoxically, the high-risk group demonstrated enhanced representation of F2 harmonics across all stimulus conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

These results appear to be in line with a music experience-dependent enhancement of F2 harmonics. However, due to sound overexposure in the high-risk group, the role of homeostatic central compensation cannot be ruled out. A larger scale data set with different noise exposure background, longitudinal measurements with an array of behavioral and electrophysiological tests is needed to disentangle the nature of the complex interaction between the effects of central compensatory gain and experience-dependent enhancement.