According to Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s (BWH) team of researchers over the past 15 years, they’ve seen an increase in hearing loss among adolescents. These findings have since been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on August 18, 2010 (to our knowledge, this is still very relevant information).
Understanding the Research Study
The study was funded by the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Foundation and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Development Funds. It reviewed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of adolescents (12 to 19 years old) from throughout America. This led to the discovery that one in five of them had hearing problems. Unfortunately, when this data was compared to that which was collected between 1988 – 1994 researchers discovered a 30% increase in hearing issues and a 70% increase in mild or worse hearing loss. They hope that by bringing this knowledge to parents’ attention there will be efforts made to save their hearing.
Another interesting discovery that was made was those adolescent males suffer from more hearing issues than females. This was especially true in those adolescents who were living below the poverty level. Shargorodsky, a clinical fellow in otology and laryngology at Harvard Medical School says that they’ll need to conduct further research in order to better understand why this is happening and also why it’s increasing in prevalence.
Understanding the Loss of Hearing Among Adolescents
The fact that adolescents are losing their hearing is more common today even though it will frequently go underrecognized. Unfortunately, this will affect their development educationally, psychologically, and even socially. Until recently though little was known about how adolescents lost their hearing over the course of time.
According to the study’s lead author Josef Shargorodsky, a physician-investigator at the Channing Laboratory at BWH we’ve known for a while now that hearing loss is quite common among American adults. He continued on to say that knowing and understanding about this in adolescents will help them have a better understanding of the issue overall. It should also help with further identifying what may be causing people to lose their hearing.
Shargorodsky says that what makes this data so concerning is that there’s also research that shows that teens don’t seem to understand how important their hearing is. They tend to underestimate the dangers of noise exposure so they don’t prioritize protecting their hearing.
Today, we live in a world of insert earphones and earbuds along with a wide variety of smartphones. Both are ubiquitous with today’s youth. If an individual doesn’t moderate their volume levels, hearing loss is sure to follow.
If you or your teen are suffering from hearing loss contact Countryside Hearing Aid Services in Clearwater, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Oldsmar, and Safety Harbor, FL, today.
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