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Published on 01 February 2013
Last year, Sound Check Australia took to the Internet with an online hearing test to ask Aussies about their hearing and nearly 7,500 people responded in what it calls “the power of citizen science”.
Its early results show that the average age of people whose hearing begins to slide in Australia is 60, while the average of those reporting perfect hearing was 32 years old. 64% reported that their hearing was between good and perfect.
“While we may think our hearing is in pretty good nick, 40% of respondents also felt they had a hearing loss,” say the researchers.
Men were more likely to report that they felt they had a hearing loss than women (44% compared to 36%) but around 1 in 5 people simply didn’t know if they had a hearing loss or not. That annoying ringing – tinnitus – was common amongst participants with 70% experiencing it to some degree. Almost a quarter of respondents said they experienced tinnitus always or frequently, while just under half experienced it occasionally. Only 30% never had any tinnitus symptoms.
Men seem to suffer more frequently from tinnitus than women – they were more likely to report constant or frequent tinnitus and less likely to say they never experienced tinnitus.
Tinnitus frequency also increased with age. The average age of those reporting they always experienced tinnitus was 50, while it was 40 for those who never had tinnitus. Interestingly, the average age of those who experience tinnitus occasionally was younger – at around 34.
Source: Sound Check Australia
