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Louise Carroll - National Foundation for the Deaf, Auckland

One in every five American teenagers has a hearing loss, and the National Foundation for the Deaf fears the same applies in New Zealand.

Research published in the United States shows the number of teens with a hearing loss is up from 15 percent to 19.5 percent in a decade – a 30 percent increase.

NFD chief executive Louise Caroll says while the hearing loss found in the surveys was relatively slight, it had implications for those teens’ education and social lives.

“The high tones, where the research found the loss, where the research found the loss to be, are essential for understanding speech in everyday environments,” she says.

Given the similarities between teen cultures in the United States and New Zealand, we have to accept that the same sort of hearing loss is probably occurring here too.

“We also have to understand why this is happening. A 30 percent jump in a decade suggests a change in practice across teen society, and one potential cause has to be the way teens listen to particular music, particularly through MP3 players.”

The researchers at the Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston looked at two separate surveys of 12-19-year-olds, done in 1988-1994 and 2005-2006. The results are published in the Journal of American Medical Association.

The researchers found 14.9 percent of 12 to 19-year-olds had a slight hearing loss in 1988 to 1994, but jumped to 19.5 percent of teenagers in 2005-2006.

However, the researchers also found there was a 77 percent increase in the number of teens with mild or worse hearing loss over the same period.

“We have to wake up to what we are doing to our hearing,” Mrs. Caroll says. “Two many of us dismiss hearing loss as an old person’s problem, and young people consider themselves bullet-proof. Damaged hearing is damaged for good. This research should be a wake-up call for everyone.”