Noise-related hearing loss not limited to work exposure
Unless your hearing is tested, it’s really hard to know if it’s damaged. That’s the message of a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey that found about one in four U.S. adults who say their hearing is good or excellent actually have hearing damage. Now the latest CDC Vital Signs report shows that much of this damage is from loud sounds encountered during everyday activities at home and in the community.
CDC researchers analyzed more than 3,500 hearing tests conducted on adult participants in the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They found that 20 percent of people who reported no job-related noise exposure had hearing damage in a pattern usually caused by noise. This damage – shown by a distinctive drop in the ability to hear high-pitched sounds – appeared as early as age 20. This research was conducted by CDC with support from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.