Hearing loss on the rise

From the dawn of the Walkman era people have sought refuge from the boredom of travel by cranking up the volume.

Alas, this is reflected in the rise of hearing damage, especially in teenagers, who are the keenest users of headphones.

A new study has found that hearing loss in US teenagers rose by nearly one third in recent years.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists report that the portion of US adolescents aged 12 to 19 with any hearing loss rose from 14.9 percent during the 1988 to 1995 period, to 19.5 percent in 2005 and 2006.

A person was determined to have some hearing loss if during tests a tone had to be increased by 15 dB or more beyond the standard detection level to be heard at least half the time.

Normal conversation is about 60 dB, with injury to the ear occurring above 80 dB with exposure to sustained noise.

Many personal music players now generate sound levels at the ear in excess of 120 decibels, similar in intensity to a jet engine.

Study coauthor Sharon Curhan, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said that while noise exposure is a known culprit, diet, medical care, lack of exercise and obesity might also play a role.

Oddly, when asked about their exposure to loud music, teens with good hearing didn’t give answers substantially different from those offered by kids with poorer hearing.

“People underestimate their noise exposure,” Dr Curhan said.

So what can you do to preserve your hearing?

• Never have the volume set at a level where you eliminate the background noise. You must always be able to hear that background noise.
• Don’t listen for long un-interrupted periods at loud volumes.
• Invest in whole-ear headphones that are noise-cancelling. These cancel out the background noise so you can keep the volume down.

This article was published on Wed 18 August 2010