More than a billion young people could lose their hearing because of headphones

 Today, headphones have become a common accessory for millions of young people who can listen to music for hours while sitting in transport or walking through the streets. However, researchers warn: young people's love of listening to loud music can lead to about a third of them to partial or total hearing loss.

This is stated in a study published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

According to WHO, about 430 million people in the world suffer from hearing loss, of which 34 million are children. Deafness has long ceased to be mainly an age-related problem, and every year the number of young people who have partially or completely lost the ability to hear is increasing.

The main reason for congenital deafness is the love of young people for using headphones and visiting places with loud music - for example, night clubs. According to the results of previous studies, headphone users often turn the volume up to 105 decibels, while the acceptable level is 75-80 decibels - and even for a very short period of time.

So far, scientists have compiled data from 33 studies in English, French and Spanish, involving 19,046 people aged 12 to 34 who used headphones or visited places with loud music for longer than recommended by doctors. It turned out that 24 percent of teenagers and 48 percent of young people are in the "risk zone" of hearing loss, which, given the approximate number of young people on the planet, is more than a billion people.

Of course, the obtained data cannot be called absolutely accurate, because different researchers used different methods, and the percentage of young people "exposed" to improper use of headphones could be influenced by the demographic distribution of the population in the studied region.

However, even the most modest estimates of half a billion people look alarming, because hearing loss reduces a person's functional capacity and can lead to severe mental consequences. In this regard, researchers call for paying more attention to the prevention of hearing loss: telling children how to use headphones correctly, monitoring the visits of teenagers to places with loud music, how far it is possible to avoid noisy places and spend more time in silence.