Hearing loss — a great disease burden, but very little research carried out.

Hearing loss affects more and more people.  The World Health Organization says that hearing loss will be one of the top 10 disease burdens in many countries and will have a great social and economic impact. Despite this, 40 times less money is used on research into hearing loss than on cardiovascular conditions per person affected.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that by 2030 adult onset hearing loss will be in the top 10 disease burdens in high or middle income countries, above cataracts and diabetes.

According to Action on Hearing Loss, hearing loss is therefore a potential health crisis that we cannot ignore. It is therefore worth noting that a lot less money is used on research into hearing loss than for example cardiovascular conditions and diabetes.

Significant costs

Innumerable studies from around the world have documented, that hearing loss has significant personal consequences and social and economic costs and impacts both employment and education.

Research by Action on Hearing Loss has shown that even at times of low unemployment, people with severe and profound levels of hearing loss were more than four times more likely to be unemployed than the general population. Hearing loss also more than doubles the risk of depression in older people and children with hearing loss have an increased risk of mental health problems.

Source: Hearing Matters, Action on Hearing Loss, 2011

Researchers believe that there is a direct link between tinnitus and stress.

Do you suffer from tinnitus (ringing in your ears)?  Did you know that recent studies have proved that tinnitus is 2.5 times more prevalent in those under stress?   This is shown by a study from The Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

In the study, the test persons were exposed to stressful situations, for example answering questions while at the same time being interrupted. After the test, blood tests were taken as were new hearing tests. The blood tests tested for levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone which is activated in stressful situations and animal tests have shown that cortisol affects hearing.

“We found that tinnitus is 2.5 times more prevalent in people who are under long-term stress,” says Professor Barbera Canlon, who was one of the people leading the research.

Perceiving sound poorly

There was also a clear tendency showing that sound recognition and the ability to perceive spoken numbers in noise was worse in the group of stressed subjects than in other people, says Barbera Canlon.

According to Barbera Canlon, this is the first time that it can be proven that long-term stress has an effect on hearing.

“It is important to consider long-term stress and the risk of burnout when treating tinnitus and over-sensitivity to sound,” says Barbera Canlon.

The researchers surmise, that tinnitus and stress react together in that stress can lead to tinnitus and tinnitus can lead to stress.

Thorough investigations

The researchers looked at 348 people, who were divided into three groups depending on their stress levels. The subjects underwent a thorough health examination and hearing tests. 31% of the participants in the study said, that they had tinnitus and a third of these had severe tinnitus.

Reprinted from www.hear-it.org