Health Ministers Agree on Global Preventive Measures Against Hearing Loss
Hearing problems are on the rise worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to counter this trend by adopting a resolution on the prevention of hearing loss.
About 360 million people worldwide live with hearing loss. Older adults in particular—about one-third of them—report hearing loss. The main reason for the increase is the aging population. But young people also risk damaging their hearing by listening to music at excessively high volumes over long periods of time.
To counter the global rise in hearing loss and raise sustainable awareness of hearing issues, a new resolution on the prevention of deafness and hearing loss was adopted at the 70th World Health Assembly of the WHO. “Too many people suffer unnecessarily from hearing loss,” said Dr. Etienne Krug, WHO Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases. As recently as spring 2017, the WHO highlighted the high global cost of 700 billion euros incurred annually due to untreated hearing loss. According to the WHO, these costs would be preventable if more people underwent early and regular hearing tests and had hearing loss diagnosed and treated promptly.
This is where the new WHO resolution comes in, calling on member states to integrate hearing prevention strategies into their health care systems. Regulations to control noise and screening programs for early detection are just two possible examples. The resolution therefore reads as a plea for the introduction of widespread hearing screening, similar to early detection programs for skin, breast, or colorectal cancer.
But the WHO itself is also stepping up its public awareness efforts. The resolution also calls for the creation of a global report on hearing care, as well as a toolkit and additional support for member states. The World Health Organization is thus explicitly committing to the issue of hearing and is also shining a spotlight on World Hearing Day, which takes place annually on March 3. In 2017, 3,500 partners in Germany participated in this day of action, offering information and educational resources on hearing under the slogan “Hearing: The Meaning of Your Life.”
