Posted December 18, 2015 11:01 am by Comments

By Tactical-Life

The following is a release from David E. Gillespie, BACH Public Affairs:

Army Medicine audiology researchers are studying how hearing loss affects Soldier performance on the battlefield, giving commanders a better understanding of real-world limitations, and helping create a new, more realistic, standard for hearing profiles.

For more than 30 years, auditory fitness levels have been measured annually using an audiometry test, also known as the Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System Hearing Conservation, with a certain hearing-loss threshold prompting a mandatory medical review board.

So while many Soldiers have been labeled non-deployable because of hearing loss, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, spends more than $1 billion in compensation per year to treat hearing loss for more than 800,000 veterans. Data collected by the VA shows as many as 52 percent of combat Soldiers have moderately severe hearing loss or worse, mostly because of the loud sounds associated with combat.

However, researches want to know if the audiometry test’s long-established hearing profiles are an accurate measure of a Soldier’s ability to move, shoot and communicate.

“We are working on a research protocol that is looking at the effects …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life

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