Hver tredje person føler en vis grad af skam ved brug af høreapparat

Sennheiser undersøgelse: Briller anses for at være socialt acceptabelt, mens det modsatte gør sig gældende for høreapparater.

København, 2. marts 2023 – En ny undersøgelse viser, at 1 ud af 3 personer i alderen 45-70 år føler en vis grad af skam ved brug af et høreapparat i offentligheden, mens kun 1 ud af 10 personer har den samme følelse, når det kommer til at bære briller. Undersøgelsen er foretaget i forbindelse med World Hearing Day blandt 2.500 respondenter i alderen 45-75 år fra USA, Storbritannien, Tyskland, Frankrig og Australien heraf ca. 500 fra hvert land.

On March 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) will mark World Hearing Day and highlight the importance of integrating ear and hearing care. Ear and hearing problems are remarkably common with approximately 1 in 5 people living with some form of hearing loss worldwide. * The World Health Organization warns that by 2030, nearly 630 million people worldwide will have a hearing disability. By 2050, that could jump to 900 million. Currently, 15% of American adults aged 18 and older report some trouble with their hearing. ** Untreated hearing loss in midlife remains the largest modifiable risk factor for dementia.

According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, people with hearing loss wait an average of seven years before seeking help. *** This may also help give context to some additional revelations in the Sennheiser-commissioned study which found that 36% of 45- to 70-year-olds struggle to hear conversations in loud environments, like in a restaurant. Moreover, 39% of this age group have pretended to have heard someone in a conversation but couldn’t hear them properly due to background noise – so they just acted as if they heard the person.

This is a remarkably common issue for 45- to 70-year-olds and new technologies and products are now coming to market to address this. The Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus, launched in January 2023, is one such product. The true wireless earbuds enhance the voice of the person a user looks at while reducing background volumes from other people and things, making conversations much easier to follow in noisy environments.

“We conducted this survey to draw attention to the social stigma of wearing assisted hearing devices in public or with friends,” says Sonova Consumer Hearing GVP Martin Grieder. “We also want to highlight just how common certain hearing challenges are and hope that these results can help to start conversations and bring more awareness to make this stigma a thing of the past.”

Untreated hearing loss in midlife remains the largest modifiable risk factor for dementia. The use of hearing aids for hearing loss and reduce hearing loss by protecting ears from high noise levels.

* World Health Organization

** National Institute on Deafness and other Communication disorders

*** Hearing Loss Association of America

www.sennheiser-hearing.com