DTMT NETWORK
A recent study on hearing loss and its causes in India has revealed that smokeless tobacco consumption, heavy smoking, work-related noise, and also excessive residential noise are risk factors associated with Sensory Neural Hearing Loss (SNHL).

A multi-center cross-sectional survey conducted as per the WHO recommended Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling technique assessed 92,097 people across six sites in India.

Referring to the findings of the study on World Hearing Day, India’s Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan informed that age-appropriate audiological testing as per WHO norms, including pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, oto-acoustic emissions, behavioral observation audiometry and ENT examination, were all undertaken onsite in a specially designed sound treated audiological bus.

The minister pointed out that the results have indicated a changing profile of hearing loss in India’s population, in tune with similar changes in other countries, as they move forward in economic development.

The study revealed that disabling hearing loss affected 2.9% of the population and it affected communication, education and work.

“The rural population had a far greater prevalence of hearing loss. The prevalence of total hearing loss, unilateral and bilateral, was found to be as high as 9.93%.The geriatric population accounted for 40.5% of all hearing loss and 72.4% of all disabling hearing loss,” said Dr Vardhan.