The Centers for Disease Control recently reported nearly 20 percent of people in their 20s have some sort of hearing loss.
“Honestly it is surprising,” UMKC student Mikal Smith said. “Honestly, kind of scary, cause it's like wow, someone my age can really lose their hearing for the rest of their life.”
“You don't think that's going to happen until you're in like 50s or 60s,” UMKC student Sidney Forman said.
The study stated almost one in four adults between the ages of 20 and 69 who reported good to excellent hearing, already have some hearing loss.
While noisy jobs can contribute to hearing loss, the study showed that noise-related hearing loss was not limited to work exposure.
“When you think about it, those things in the environment that we don't really think of as noise exposure, like mowing the yard, traffic, listening to music, those things build up over time and when you do it every day, that's just as similar as working in a noisy place,” Audiologist for the Midwest Ear Institute, Dr. Kristen Lewis said.
17-year-old Josie Wilkerson says listening to music at a high volume is a common trend among her and her classmates. “
I listen to mine pretty high I would say because I do like to get involved with my music but it is kind of hard not to turn it down if you really want to listen,” Wilkerson said. “A lot of times we can hear each other’s music just like passing in the hallways, who's listening to what and it's like the whole school has their earbuds in through lunch.”
As loud exposure builds over time, Lewis says it can cause permanent hearing damage.
“It just pounds away at those nerve endings in the inner ear, it's going to really negatively impact people's understanding ability for speech and it just builds up and continues gradually over time,” Lewis said.
Audiologists suggest getting a hearing screening once a year.
“If somebody fails a hearing screening, then you would want to have a diagnostic hearing test, and that at least establishes a base line to see what hearing loss looks like at this point in time,” Lewis said. “. And typically people have their hearing checked one to two years to see if it's getting progressively worse over time.”
Here are a few tips to keep your ears and hearing in check:
- Avoid noisy places whenever possible
- Keep your volume to a minimum when you’re watching TV or listening to music.
- Use protective earbuds when you are around loud noises
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Rae Daniel can be reached at Rae.Daniel@KSHB.com.
