Girls more and more often have hearing problems that can make it difficult for them, for example, to understanding the speech of others – according to research published by Pediatrics. They are even starting to catch up with the boys in this regard.
According to the authors of the latest work, this may be due to the increasing popularity of portable players and listening to loud music on headphones.
Researchers from Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, analyzed the results of audiometric tests that were carried out on 4310 adolescents aged 12-19, of which 2,519 young people were tested in 1988-94 and 1,791 in 2005-2006.
Three types of hearing problems were taken into account – difficulties with hearing low-frequency sounds, many of which are contained in, for example, male voices, problems with hearing high-frequency sounds, present e.g. in the sound of a violin, bird singing or child’s speech, and changes in the hearing threshold caused by time-defined exposure to noise (the so-called hearing threshold shift – NITS). NITS disturb the hearing of sounds in the range typical of human speech and some high tones, e.g. made by instruments.
It turned out that all three types of hearing loss occurred with a similar frequency among adolescents tested in the later and earlier time period. But when the researchers did a gender analysis, they found that hearing threshold shift (NITS) was found in a greater proportion of the teenage girls studied between 2005 and 2006. It increased from 12 percent. in the earlier time frame up to 17 percent.
The girls caught up with the boys in this respect – comments Elisabeth Henderson, the researcher. And although the authors of the latest study did not check the causes of hearing loss in girls, according to the researcher, this may be due to the fact that they are more and more often exposed to noise related to recreational listening to loud music, e.g. from portable players through headphones.
In fact, recent studies have observed that the percentage of adolescents of both genders who admitted to listening to music at high levels through headphones in the last 24 hours increased from 20% to 80%. in the late 90s and early 35s up to 2005% in the years 2006-24. Moreover, in this later timeframe, a similar proportion of teenage girls and boys – 27% and 7%, respectively. admitted to exposure to noise related to entertainment, but girls less frequently – by approx. XNUMX percent. – used noise protection than boys.
According to Henderson, some hearing threshold shifts may be permanent and some may be periodic. However, it is difficult to judge. In addition, many hearing losses take longer to develop, so the teenagers tested may have even more hearing problems as young adults.
The researcher recommends that adolescents protect their sense of hearing in several ways. First, she should always use earplugs at loud concerts, second – use noise-canceling headphones and listen to music in a softer way – at least so quietly that we can hear someone speaking to us.
Commenting on a study published in Pediatrics for Reuters, Dr. Peter Rabinowitz of Yale University in New Haven agreed that the increase in the incidence of hearing loss among girls is likely due to their exposure to loud sounds. It is still unclear whether portable music players can be blamed for this, he noted.
While the researchers found that more and more adolescents were listening to loud music, they did not find that most types of hearing loss became more common, and boys did not have more frequent hearing threshold shifts than in previous years.
This study does not prove that loud music causes hearing loss in children – emphasizes the researcher. But since all hearing problems in teenagers are a concern, we should do something to prevent them. (PAP)