Youth hearing loss continues to climb

 According to an article published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the number of teenagers with significant hearing loss has jumped from 14.9%  in 1988 to 19.5% in 2006.  This means that 1 in 5 teenagers has experienced some hearing loss in the United States. Hearing loss of more than 25 decibels, a big enough difference that teenagers will typically notice it, has gone from 3.5% to 5.3%. Experts agree that this surge is likely attributable to the prevalence of using personal hearing devices, such as iPods, with earbud headphones.

Though he was not directly involved with the Harvard university study, Dr. William Slattery, a clinical professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles  says, “Once you have hearing loss, there’s a greater risk of that hearing loss progressing as you get older. Here is a major study that demonstrates that teenagers are having hearing loss in a significant percent of children. It can happen and it does happen.”

Children with even minor hearing loss perform poorer in school than those with functional hearing. Also, those same children operate worse on a social level than their peers. Hearing damage is irreversible, a concept, Slattery says, is not completely understood by children and even their parents. And many times, those with hearing loss do not even know they have a problem, rendering treatment unlikely and unavailable.

With the advancement of music technology, most of the music we listen to today has been filtered so that it sounds clearer. However, because of this, music can be much more detrimental to a listener’s hearing when its volume is not carefully monitored and restrained. Doctors suggest setting a volume limit on your stereos and mp3 players to avoid listening to music at a damagingly high level.