A study published in the journal BMJ Global Health in 2022 reveals some alarming findings where over one billion teenagers and young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss due to their use of headphones and earbuds, and attendance at loud music venues.
Youngsters At Risk Of Hearing Loss
Basically, the governments around the world need to urgently prioritize “safe listening” policies to safeguard aural health, noted the international team having researchers from Medical University of South Carolina, US.
According to the authors of the study, “there is an urgent need for governments, industry, and civil society to prioritize global hearing loss prevention by promoting safe listening practices.”
Over 430 million people worldwide currently have disabling hearing loss, estimates the researchers from The World Health Organization (WHO).
Further adding that the young people are particularly vulnerable because of their use of personal listening devices (PLDs), such as smartphones, headphones and earbuds, and attendance at loud music venues, amid poor regulatory enforcement.
It appears that the PLD users often choose volumes as high as 105 decibel (dB) while average sound levels at entertainment venues range from 104 to 112 dB, as suggested by the previously published research.
This is much more than the permissible sound levels of 80 dB for adults and 75 dB for children even if for very short periods of time.
In this study, the researchers gauged the prevalence of unsafe listening practices among teens and young adults to create a global estimate of the numbers who could therefore be at risk of hearing loss.
For doing so, the researchers trawled research databases for relevant studies published in English, French, Spanish and Russian, involving 12-34 year-olds.
So that they can objectively measure device output levels and length of exposure.
A Common Practice
This research considered 33 studies, corresponding to data from 35 records and 19,046 participants.
It has 17 records focused on PLD use and 18 focused on loud entertainment venues.
Besides this, the researchers also estimated the number of people who could be at risk of hearing loss by considering the estimated global population of 12-34 year-olds in 2022 (2.8 billion) and the best estimates of exposure to unsafe listening practices from PLDs or loud entertainment venues.
Interestingly, this research indicates that the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from PLD use and attendance at loud entertainment venues is common worldwide.
It stands at 24 percent and 48 percent, respectively, among teens and young people.
Further, this research estimates that the global number of teens and young adults who could potentially be at risk of hearing loss as a result ranges from 0.67 to 1.35 billion.
