Knowledge needs on noise in the actions of the General practitioner
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

 

Knowledge needs on noise in the actions of the General practitioner

Necesidad de conocimientos sobre el ruido en el accionar del médico de familia

 

 

Rosa Caridad Truffín Hernández1*
Ariel Pérez Truffín1

 

1Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences. Department of Otolaryngology "Arnaldo Milián Castro" Clinical Surgical University Hospital. Cuba.
2Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences. Basic Area Department. Cuba.

 

*Author for correspondence. E-mail: rosath@infomed.sld.cu

 

 

Submitted: 08/07/2019
Accepted: 02/09/2019

 

 

To the editor:

The quality of a health service is based on the level of competence and performance of its workers in the fulfillment of their work and social functions. To this end, it is necessary to motivate general practitioners to adopt a permanent professional improvement as a lifestyle that meets their needs in accordance with the social, political, economic and epidemiological context of the environment where they work;(1) hence the relevance to diagnose their levels of knowledge in relation to health promotion and disease prevention in the community, in order to organize a postgraduate education that favorably contributes to better health levels in the population.

Noise is one of the contaminations that currently affect communities, unwanted sound that is unpleasant and untimely and lacks harmonic quality. There are many sources of noise pollution in cities, including motorized transport: cars, motorcycles, and rail and air traffic; other sources include construction, public works, industrial noise and neighborhood noise (community noise) which lead to hearing damage and many health risks.(2)

This problem motivated the authors to question the following:

  • Is the General practitioner sufficiently prepared to undertake the new challenge of modifying the tendency to increase noise produced in the community, through health promotion activities?
  • In a first approach to the subject, this article presents some of the preliminary knowledge that is necessary with respect to the effects of noise in the communities.

Berenger, referenced by Cornelio Yacamán,(3) points out that the sound phenomenon and noise are meaningful parts, as an ingrained need of the cultural nature, but that it cannot be separated from the biological framework. In this sense, noise as a communicative fact is increasingly latent in the current panorama; mainly, in urban contexts where the cultural mix as a growing phenomenon, poses complex contradictions regarding cultural attitudes in reference to the use of sound.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 60 % of hearing loss in childhood could be avoided with preventive measures. Intense noises, including those produced by personal devices such as smart phones and .mp3 readers used at high volume for prolonged periods, can cause hearing loss.(4)

Noise-induced hearing loss is becoming more frequent. Public agglomerations are making cities increasingly noisy, particularly in developing countries. The WHO predicts that by 2030, one billion people will be at risk for noise-induced hearing loss.

Noise affects human life in many ways: it influences sleep, hearing, physical, emotional, mental health and communication; It also causes some other health impacts that are not as evident and perceptible. Orozco Medina et al.(5) suggest that traffic noise increases the risk of dying from a vascular disease, as well as suffering from sleep and stress disorders, criteria that coincide with that of Alfie Cohen(2) when he refers that modernity, industry, urbanization and daily hustle cause high noise pollution in urban areas. Transport, construction, accelerated population growth; among others, they are causes of noise in cities. It can be assured that all these activities break the natural balance and cause stress, because noise is undesirable it affects and harms people; it is one of the main sources of contagion in large cities.

Exposure to high noise levels for short times may result in temporary hearing loss; while for long periods it causes permanent hearing damage.(5)

WHO(4) insists on the importance of identifying the most vulnerable risk groups such as children, the elderly and lower socio-economic groups. This organization states that in 1997 the environmental health committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics reported the potential for noise-induced hearing loss and other health effects on fetuses and newborns. Research(6) on noise exposure of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit has indicated the adverse effects on hearing, brain development and physiological changes that occur in this stage.

The academic community is urged to train General practitioner s so that they can transmit to their population the necessary knowledge to combat this scourge in health.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

1. Salas Perea RS. La identificación de necesidades de aprendizaje. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2003 [citado 03/03/2019];17(1):[aprox. 14 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/pdf/ems/v17n1/ems03103.pdf

2. Alfie Cohen M. Ruido en la ciudad. Contaminación auditiva y ciudad caminable. Estud Demogr Urbanos [Internet]. 2017 [citado 29/03/2019];32(1):[aprox. 32 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/educm/v32n1/2448-6515-educm-32-01-00065.pdf

3. Cornelio Yacaman JA. El rol del ruido en la conformación de la identidad sonora de un lugar. Aus Art [Internet]. 2015 [citado 29/03/2019];3(2):[aprox. 11 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/ausart/article/download/15962/14188

4. OMS. Estadísticas Sanitarias Mundiales. [Internet]. 2014 [citado 25/03/2019]. Disponible en: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/112817/WHO_HIS_HSI_14.1_spa.pdf;jsessionid=D454989FFAAB05B1BF7A4E654E193BCB?sequence=1

5. Orozco Medina MG, Figuero Montaño A, Orozco Barocio A. Aportaciones al análisis del ruido y salud en las ciudades. Rev Univ Desarrollo Social [Internet]. 2015 [citado 19/03/2019];(9):[aprox. 8 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revistascientificas.udg.mx/index.php/IXA/article/download/6776/5861

6. Colucci D. Make Fetal Noise Protection Part of Audiology Care. Hearing Journal [Internet]. 2014 [citado 25/03/2019];67(6):[aprox. 2 p.]. Disponible en: https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2014/06000/Make_Fetal_Noise_Protection_Part_of_Audiology_Care.5.aspx

 

 

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

 

 

Contribution of the authors

Rosa Caridad Truffín Hernández and Ariel Pérez Truffín: they carried out the bibliographic searches, analyzed them and made up the article.

 

 

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