Impact of Blast Injury on Hearing in a Screened Male Military Population

Abstract Exposure to hazardous intensity levels of combat noise, such as blast, may compromise a person’s ability to detect and recognize sounds and communicate effectively. There is little previous examination of the onset of hearing health outcomes following exposure to blast in representative sam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of epidemiology Vol. 187; no. 1; pp. 7 - 15
Main Authors Joseph, Antony R, Shaw, Jaime L, Clouser, Mary C, MacGregor, Andrew J, Galarneau, Michael R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Oxford University Press 01.01.2018
Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
Subjects
Acoustics
Confidence intervals
Exposure
Hearing
Hearing loss
Hearing tests
Injuries
Injury analysis
Military
Military personnel
Noise intensity
hazardous noise
hearing conservation
hearing threshold shift
cohort
hearing loss
auditory injury
audiogram
blast exposure
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Summary:Abstract Exposure to hazardous intensity levels of combat noise, such as blast, may compromise a person’s ability to detect and recognize sounds and communicate effectively. There is little previous examination of the onset of hearing health outcomes following exposure to blast in representative samples of deployed US military personnel. Data from the prospective Blast-Related Auditory Injury Database were analyzed. We included only those participants with qualified hearing tests within a period of 12 months prior to, and following, injury (n = 1,574). After adjustment for relevant covariates and potential confounders, those who sustained a blast injury had significantly higher odds of postinjury hearing loss (odds ratio = 2.21; 95% confidence interval: 1.42, 3.44), low-frequency hearing loss (odds ratio = 1.95; 95% confidence interval: 1.01, 3.78), high-frequency hearing loss (odds ratio = 2.45; 95% confidence interval: 1.43, 4.20), and significant threshold shift compared with a group with non-blast-related injury. An estimated 49% of risk for hearing loss in these blast-injured, deployed military members could be attributed to the blast-related injury event. This study reinforced that it is imperative to identify at-risk populations for early intervention and prevention, as well as to consistently monitor the effects of blast injury on hearing outcomes.
ISSN:0002-9262
1476-6256
DOI:10.1093/aje/kwx199