Preventive audiology: An African perspective is published by AOSIS Scholarly Books.
This book is an original scholarly book that introduces the concept of preventive audiology, with a specific focus on the African context, which is in line with the South African re-engineered primary healthcare strategy as well as the World Health Organisation’s approach. The book reflects on contextually relevant and responsive evidence-based perspectives, grounded in an African context on preventive audiology, in four major ear and hearing burdens of disease within the South African context: (1) early hearing detection and intervention, (2) middle ear pathologies, (3) ototoxicity, and (4) noise-induced hearing loss. The book represents innovative research, seen from both a South African and global perspective. It offers new discourse and argues for a paradigm shift in how audiology is theorised and performed, particularly in low-and-middle-income country contexts. The goal of this book is to motivate a paradigm shift in how the ear and hearing care is approached within this low-and-middle-income country context while arguing for Afrocentric best practice evidence that leads to next practice.
Copyright (c) 2022 Katijah Khoza-Shangase (Volume editor)
Hearing function can be negatively impacted by numerous factors, including lifestyle choices, environmental factors, genetic predisposition, burden of disease, and other causes. Frequently, hearing impairment can be prevented and/or its consequences significantly minimized through preventive measures. Such prevention commands conscientiously deliberated, anticipatory actions. South Africa, as a resource-constrained low-and-middle-income country, still has a challenge of high numbers of individuals with preventable hearing impairment from cradle to grave. This book, Preventive audiology: An African perspective, is an original scholarly book that introduces the concept of preventive audiology, with a specific focus on the African context, which is in line with the South African re-engineered primary healthcare strategy as well as the World Health Organisation’s approach. It reflects on contextually relevant and responsive evidence-based perspectives in four major ear and hearing burdens of disease within the South African context: (1) early hearing detection and intervention, (2) middle ear pathologies, (3) ototoxicity, and (4) noise induced hearing loss. The book represents innovative research, seen from both a South African and global perspective. It offers new discourse and argues for a paradigm shift in how audiology is theorised and performed, particularly in low-and-middle-income country contexts, while, arguing for Afrocentric best practice evidence that leads to next practice. Sufficient evidence exists regarding the economics and quality of life investment benefits of preventive care, hence the focus of this edited book on African Perspectives. The book’s target audience consists of specialists in the field of Audiology.