Why Hearing Loss Is Not An Age Problem

Hearing loss isn't simply an issue for older people, in spite of the common idea. While age is a reliable predictor of hearing loss, overall hearing loss has been on the rise. Hearing loss stays at about 14-16% among adults 20 to 69 years old. The World Health Organization and the United Nations suggests that more than 1 billion people globally aged 12-35 are in danger of developing loss of hearing. In children between the ages of 6 and 19, around 15% already have hearing loss as reported by the CDC, and the number seems to be closer to 17% based on more recent research. Other reports state that hearing loss is up 30% in teenagers over just 10 years ago. Worse still, a study conducted by Johns Hopkins projects these trends out into the future and forecasts that by 2060 about 73 million people above the age of 65 will have loss of hearing. That's an astounding increase over current numbers.

We Are Getting Hearing Loss at a Younger Age, Why?

We usually think about hearing loss as a result of aging as it would develop slowly over years unless you spent extended amounts of time in a noisy setting. This is why when you're grandmother wears a hearing aid, you're not surprised. But changes in our way of life are impacting our hearing at a younger and younger age.

Technology, and smartphones, in particular, can have a significant impact on our hearing. We are doing what we love to do: chatting with friends, listening to music, watching movies and using earbuds or headphones to do it all. Most people have no clue what is a harmful volume or how long it takes to do damage and that's an issue. Sometimes we even use earbuds to drown out loud noises, meaning we're voluntarily subjecting our ears to harmful levels of sound instead of safeguarding them.

There's a whole generation of young people everywhere who are slowly but surely injuring their hearing. In terms of loss of productivity, that's a big problem and one that will cost billions of dollars in treatment.

Do we Really Understand Hearing Loss?

Keeping away from very loud sounds is something that even young kids are usually sensible enough to do. But the nature of hearing damage isn't widely grasped. It's not generally recognized that over longer time periods, even moderate sound levels can injure hearing.

Needless to say, most people around the world, especially young people, aren't really thinking about the dangers of hearing loss because they think that it's only an aging problem.

According to the WHO, those in this 12-35-year-old age group may be exposing their ears to irreversible damage.

Recommended Solutions

The problem is especially widespread because so many of us are using smart devices on a regular basis. That's the reason why providing additional information to mobile device users has been a recommended solution by some hearing experts:

• Built-in parental controls which allow parents to more closely supervise volume and adjust for hearing health.
• Warnings when you listen too long at a specific decibel level (it's not just the volume of a sound that can lead to damage it's how long the sound lasts).
• Warnings about high volume.

And that's only the beginning. Paying more attention to the health of our ears, many technological solutions exist.

Reduce The Volume

The most important way to mitigate injury to your ears is to decrease the volume of your mobile device. Whether your 15, 35, or 70, that holds true.

And there is no arguing the fact that smartphones are not going away. Everyone uses them all the time, not only kids. So we've got to come to terms with the fact that loss of hearing is no longer associated with aging, it's associated with technology.

Which means we need to change the way we discuss, prevent, and deal with hearing loss.

Also, decibel levels in your environment can be measured by app's that you can download. 2 steps to protect your hearing. Making certain not to attempt to drown out loud noises with even louder noises and of course using ear protection. If you drive with the window down, for example, the noise from the wind and traffic might already be at a harmful level so don't turn up the radio to drown it out. Make an appointment with a hearing care specialist if you have any questions.