The major preventable cause of hearing loss is noise injury.
Thirty seven percent of hearing loss is due to noise injury, which could have been prevented.
Hearing loss is mainly on the increase due to leisure activities such as personal music players and social and recreational noise.
Young people and farmers are at great risk. Why farmers? Because they turn up their music player headphones to block out machinery noise, such as tractors. This noise injury also increases their risk of tinnitus.
Noise-related hearing loss among young adults is concerning. Their ears are ageing faster than they should be.
Hearing is damaged by the loudness of the signal, the amount of time you are exposed, and how often.
The type of earphones people use can have an effect. Some earbuds are poor-fitting, and users may turn up the volume to try to block out background noise, which increases the risk of noise injury.
Hearing loss associated with noise exposure can occur at any age and is often characterised by the difficulty in understanding speech and the presence of tinnitus. This form of hearing loss is almost entirely preventable.
Deafness is one of the most common disabilities worldwide. One in six Australians has some form of hearing impairment – that’s 3.55 million people. The number of Australians with deafness is expected to increase to 1 in 4 by 2050.