March 3rd 'World Hearing Day'... Check Your Ear Health

Newborn Hearing Screening

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Next month on the 3rd is "World Hearing Day," designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness about hearing loss prevention and auditory health. The ear is often overlooked, but recently, due to aging populations and lifestyle habits such as frequent use of earphones, the number of hearing loss patients has steadily increased. According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, the number of patients treated for hearing loss rose from 340,000 in 2016 to 409,000 in 2020, an increase of about 20% over five years.

When hearing problems occur due to ear diseases, communication becomes difficult, and in severe cases, dizziness or dementia can even develop. It is especially important to be cautious because once damaged, recovery is difficult.

The representative hearing loss conditions are noise-induced hearing loss and age-related hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss can occur to anyone exposed to noise for a certain period. Recently, as mobile phone use has increased, people listen to music and videos at high volumes, especially in places like subways, which raises the likelihood of noise-induced hearing loss. Headphones and earphones with noise-canceling functions allow users to hear well without increasing volume, thereby reducing the risk of noise-induced hearing loss.

Noise-induced hearing loss in adolescents first affects high-frequency hearing. In quiet places, there is no difficulty in conversation, but in noisy environments, communication becomes challenging. At this point, hearing loss has already progressed significantly. The initial symptom of noise-induced hearing loss is tinnitus in quiet places, so if tinnitus occurs, hearing loss should be checked promptly.

To prevent noise-induced hearing loss, it is advisable not to use earphones continuously for more than one hour and to keep the volume below 50% whenever possible. When early symptoms such as tinnitus appear, accurate testing followed by treatment and rehabilitation education is recommended.

Age-related hearing loss is a gradual loss of hearing that occurs as one ages, typically starting around age 60. It is estimated that one in three people over 60 and 40-50% of those over 75 experience hearing loss. Age-related hearing loss makes it seem as if others are mumbling or speaking unclearly, and it becomes difficult to understand conversations in noisy environments. Hearing loss symptoms begin in the high frequencies and gradually progress to mid and low frequencies.

If age-related hearing loss is left untreated without auditory rehabilitation such as hearing aids, the risk of dementia is known to increase by 2 to 5 times, so active rehabilitation is necessary. If the hearing loss is purely sensorineural due to aging, hearing aids are prescribed, whereas conductive hearing loss unrelated to aging is first treated with hearing improvement surgery.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.