Preventing hearing loss among children and adolescents.

C hildren and adolescents can develop hearing loss by listening to loud noises or music. The hearing loss can happen with extremely loud noise over a short time frame, such as when a teen goes to a music concert for a night or goes on a hunting trip and listens to gunfire for a day. Hearing loss can also happen with loud noises over a longer time, such as when teens listen to loud music in their headphones over weeks or months. In a health survey done in 2005-2006, researchers found that about 16% of US adolescents had hearing loss. This was a greater percentage compared with past surveys done between 1988 and 1994 that found that about 12% of adolescents had hearing loss. The increase in hearing loss may be partly due to the popularity of headphones used by adolescents. These headphones include traditional headphones as well as “earbuds.” A research study in this month’s Archives studied 11th-grade adolescents who had a hearing screen in their school. The study found that students who listened to MP3 players and headphones were more likely to have hearing loss. The study also found that students who had problems on the hearing test said they were willing to turn down the volume on their MP3 players or limit their time listening to them. This research study shows us that when adolescents learned that they had hearing loss, they said they were willing to change their headphone use to prevent further hearing loss.