Aging Baby Boomers have noticed it. As you get older, your hearing isn't what it once was. Turns out they aren't alone.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have concluded that nearly a fifth of all Americans 12 years or older have hearing loss so severe that it may make it hard to communicate.
Study leader Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, says that several previous estimates of hearing loss focused on various cities or populations, such as children or elderly patients. However, no estimate successfully encompassed the entire U.S.
“I couldn’t find a simple number of how common hearing loss is in the U.S.,” Lin said. “So, we decided to develop our own.”
Lin and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES), a research program that has periodically gathered health data from thousands of Americans since 1971. The researchers analyzed data from all participants age 12 and over whose hearing was tested during NHANES examinations from 2001 to 2008. Unlike previous estimates, NHANES includes men and women of all races and ages, from cities scattered across the country, so it’s thought to statistically mimic the population of the U.S.
Hearing threshold
The study used the World Health Organization’s definition for hearing loss - not being able to hear sounds of 25 decibels or less in the speech frequencies. The researchers found that overall, about 30 million Americans, or 12.7 percent of the population, had hearing loss in both ears.
That number jumps to about 48 million, or 20.3 percent, for people who have hearing loss in at least one ear. These numbers far surpass previous estimates of 21 to 29 million.
Hearing loss prevalence nearly doubled with every age decade, with women and blacks being significantly less likely to have hearing loss at any age. Lin and his colleagues aren’t sure why these groups appear to be protected. However, he notes that the female hormone estrogen, as well as the melanin pigment in darker skin, could have a protective effect on the inner ear—topics they plan to research in future studies.
In the meantime, Lin says, the new numbers greatly inform the work he and other researchers are doing on hearing loss and its consequences, which, according to previous studies, include cognitive decline, dementia, and poor physical functioning.
“This gives us the real scope of the problem for the first time and shows us how big of a problem hearing loss really is,” Lin said.
The study appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Jonathan Margolin (Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:04:55 +0000): Bottom line: wear earplugs at loud concerts and turn the headphones down!
Renee D'Argento (Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:12:33 +0000): Aside from the obvious loud concerts and headphones, this is a problem cause by activites associated with every day life. I am one of the 20% with significant hearing loss in one ear... not occupation-related, never use ear phones, listen to moderately loud music occasionally, etc. I was helping my boyfriend renovate his condo last year, and after using the shop vac began having severe tinnitus symptoms. The ringing in my ear is loud 24/7. A hearing test confirmed the damage. The point is, many of us don't think anything of all the intermittent exposures to loud every day noise. Now I hope my experience will encourage people to use ear plugs or other form of proection during common ear damaging activities including lawn mowing, weed wacking, snow blowing, etc. And I hope parents will watch and educate their child about safe ear phone volume as well.