More than a billion teenagers and young people potentially face the risk of losing some of their hearing due to frequent use of headphones in their ears and listening to very loud music or attending concerts with the music on, warns a new scientific study. The research calls on the world's governments to take the issue more seriously and urgently prioritise new “safe listening” policies.
The researchers, led by Dr. Lorraine Dillard of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Medical University of South Carolina, who published the paper in the British medical journal “BMJ Global Health”, analysed and evaluated all available studies (33), which involved a total of 19,046 people aged 12-34 years. The global population of people aged 12-34 years was estimated to be approximately 2.8 billion.
The new study (systematic review and meta-analysis) concluded that unsafe listening practices, either due to frequent use of headphones or frequent participation in events with very loud music, were associated with 24% and 48% of young people respectively. The global number of adolescents and young people at potential risk for hearing loss is estimated to range from 670 million to 1.35 billion.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that at least 430 million people in the world already have a greater or lesser degree of hearing loss. Adolescents and young people are particularly vulnerable, the new study shows.
