Development of the Warfighter's Hearing Health Instructional (WHHIP) Primer App

Abstract

The Warfighter's Hearing Health Instructional Primer (WHHIP) is a supplemental tool for military hearing conservation programs (MHCPs) and can be accessed by the warfighter on his/her own personal mobile phone. A gap was identified for a supplement to MHCPs that is easily accessible by warfighters to improve hearing health knowledge. The WHHIP aims to instruct the warfighter in best hearing health practices. To do so, four activities are included: Learn, Demos, HPD Check, and Glossary. Learn and Glossary allow the warfighter to scroll through various informational topics related to hearing conservation - including videos, descriptions of noise, and results of hearing tests. In the Demos activity, the warfighter can explore the difficulties that hearing loss and tinnitus pose to sound and speech identification. The HPD Check feature allows the warfighter to take a picture of the fit of hearing protection devices (HPDs) in his/her own ears then compare the images to ones that he/she had previously taken or of standard images of good fitting devices. The WHHIP is an easily accessed reference tool available for free via Google Play; if a warfighter has a question or concern regarding his/her hearing health, the WHHIP can be used to verify or improve knowledge.