Published January 25, 2011
By Amanda Womac

Did you know that in the United States, over 30 million people are affected by varying degrees of hearing loss? That is roughly 1 in 10 individuals who have difficulty communicating with their co-workers and peers or who socially disengage because they simply cannot hear.

In this edition of “Hearing News,” I’d like to share some hearing loss statistics from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders that may be helpful in understanding the prevalence of hearing loss in our country and why our hearing aid assistance program is a valuable asset to East Tennessee.

Did you know?

• Approximately 17 percent of American adults report some degree of hearing loss.

• Men are more likely to experience hearing loss than women.

• About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born deaf or hard-of-hearing. Nine out of every 10 children who are born deaf are born to parents who can hear. Click here to read more about the importance of newborn screening.

• Three out of 4 children experience ear infection by the time they are 3 years old.

• The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) estimates that approximately 15 percent (26 million) of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have high frequency hearing loss due to exposure to loud sounds or noise at work or in leisure activities. Click here to read more about this growing phenomenon.

• Approximately 4,000 new cases of sudden deafness occur each year in the United States. Hearing loss affects only 1 ear in 9 out of 10 people who experience sudden deafness. Only 10 to 15 percent of patients with sudden deafness know what caused their loss.

• Roughly 25 million Americans have experienced tinnitus. Of adults ages 65 and older in the United States, 12 percent of men and nearly 14 percent of women are affected by tinnitus. Tinnitus is identified more frequently in white individuals and the prevalence of tinnitus is almost twice as frequent in the South as in the Northeast.

• There is a strong relationship between age and reported hearing loss: 18 percent of American adults 45-64 years old, 30 percent of adults 65-74 years old, and 47 percent of adults 75 years old or older have a hearing impairment.

• Only 1 out of 5 people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wears one. Click here to read more about how HSF provides the gift of sound to individuals with hearing loss.

• More than 112,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants. In the United States, roughly 23,000 adults and 15,500 children have received them.

• Approximately 615,000 individuals in the United States have been diagnosed with Ménière's disease, a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. Another 45,500 are newly diagnosed each year.

• Approximately 3 to 6 percent of all deaf children and another 3 to 6 percent of hard-of-hearing children have Usher syndrome, a genetic condition that affects both hearing and vision. In developed countries such as the United States, about 4 babies in every 100,000 births have Usher syndrome.