Good hearing behaviour

We’ve asked people in Brazil, the U.S., Germany, China and Switzerland about their hearing habits and knowledge of hearing loss. The results show that the global spread of noise-induced hearing loss among younger people is the evil work of (you´ve might already guessed it) – noise!
Our study shows that 90% of respondents worldwide feel that good hearing is very important or important to them. This is a clear testimonial to how much we value our most sensitive and powerful sensory organ – the ears.  However in reality we know too little and act even less to protect our hearing from harm. 
When asking how frequently people protect their ears from harmful everyday noise, such as traffic, aircrafts and construction sites, the results show that only 14% of people wear earplugs or cover their ears when exposed to loud noise. At 8% the Swiss were the least likely to protect their hearing from everyday noise. Do you protect your hearing? For more information on how, click here.

Turn the beat.. down

We’ve also been looking at how long and loud people listen to music on their headphones. The results show that more than 52% of teenagers and young adults between the age of 16 and 24 spend an hour or more wired in with their headphones daily. For young Brazilians this figure is more than 60%! Disturbingly for respondents’ hearing health, 29% of participants worldwide, listen at maximum or quite loud volume level. This practise is certain to jeopardize the hearing ability. Do you feel your hearing is affected?  Take our hearing test here.
When our ears are exposed to prolonged or excessive noise, this can result in permanent hearing loss and tinnitus. To avoid this, we encourage you to take a stand for sound hearing health. Existing guidelines recommend that you to keep the volume on your stereo and headphones no louder than 60% of the maximum and wear earplugs when spending time in noisy places. Also always remember to give your ears a rest once in a while.  Don’t forget that once your hearing is damaged it cannot be repaired! Our study has shown that a great confusion exist on whether hearing loss actually can be reversed or not. Of all respondents 10% thinks yes, 26% think partly and 33% don’t know. To bring clarity, the right answer is that hearing loss cannot be repaired and may occur at all ages. 
Do you feel in tune with good hearing behaviour now? Quiz yourself on surprising facts and popular myths about hearing and hearing loss here.