Hearing Loss & Impairments, In the Media
Look after your hearing on World Hearing Day
16
Apr
Apr
The National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) calls on South Africans to look after their ears and hearing by observing World Hearing Day on 3 March 2024. World Hearing Day was created by the World Health Organization (WHO) to highlight the importance of hearing health and advocate for accessible ear and hearing care for all.
The theme this year is “Changing mindsets: Lets make ear and hearing care a reality for all.” Many types of hearing loss are preventable, so regular hearing tests are crucial in reducing the occurrence of hearing loss and the associated costs of unaddressed hearing loss.
Currently in SA, 6% of people between the ages of 35 and 44 have hearing loss, and then 14% of people between 45 and 64. There is a perception that hearing loss only affects older people, but more and more younger people are also affected by it.
Age is indeed a cause of hearing loss, with 1 in 3 people over 65 and 2 in 3 people over 75, but there are also other causes. The reality in SA is that the biggest cause of hearing loss is acoustic trauma, which is responsible for 33.7% of cases, mostly due to loud sounds such as music and the like. There are many world-famous musicians who are now experiencing serious hearing loss in their older years, precisely because they did not protect their hearing. The current trend of listening to music via earbuds on cellphones and i-Pods is a major contributing factor to this trauma.
The good news is that acoustic trauma can be prevented to a large extent.
Some tips to look after your ears and hearing are to
Hearing aids and other assistive hearing devices may help with some hearing, but cannot restore our hearing loss, so let’s all protect our hearing so that we can hear for life!
Media enquiries and request for information, interviews and images: Erica du Toit erica@ncpd.org.za Disability Rights & Information
The theme this year is “Changing mindsets: Lets make ear and hearing care a reality for all.” Many types of hearing loss are preventable, so regular hearing tests are crucial in reducing the occurrence of hearing loss and the associated costs of unaddressed hearing loss.
Currently in SA, 6% of people between the ages of 35 and 44 have hearing loss, and then 14% of people between 45 and 64. There is a perception that hearing loss only affects older people, but more and more younger people are also affected by it.
Age is indeed a cause of hearing loss, with 1 in 3 people over 65 and 2 in 3 people over 75, but there are also other causes. The reality in SA is that the biggest cause of hearing loss is acoustic trauma, which is responsible for 33.7% of cases, mostly due to loud sounds such as music and the like. There are many world-famous musicians who are now experiencing serious hearing loss in their older years, precisely because they did not protect their hearing. The current trend of listening to music via earbuds on cellphones and i-Pods is a major contributing factor to this trauma.
The good news is that acoustic trauma can be prevented to a large extent.
Some tips to look after your ears and hearing are to
- Limit the amount of time you expose your ears to noise or loud sounds. Obviously if the sound is not there, damage cannot be done.
- Turn the volume down if possible but if not…
- give your ears a break every 15 minutes.
- Listen to music through loudspeakers rather than through the small “ear buds”. Here I am referring to mobile phones that our children use to listen to music and videos. This should never be set higher than 50% and the duration should not be longer than 15min. After that, damage can be done to the inner ear;
- Give your hearing at least 18 hours to fully recover after exposure to very loud noise;
- And then finally we can also use noise-cancelling headphones that reduce the volume but do not silence the sound.
Hearing aids and other assistive hearing devices may help with some hearing, but cannot restore our hearing loss, so let’s all protect our hearing so that we can hear for life!
Media enquiries and request for information, interviews and images: Erica du Toit erica@ncpd.org.za Disability Rights & Information