Black Americans Less Likely to Lose Hearing as They Age

By Robert Preidt
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Dec. 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Older Black Americans are more likely to have good listening to than white Americans, and the distinction is very notable amongst males, a brand new examine reveals.

“We found that among males, non-Hispanic Black Americans have a prevalence of hearing loss that is similar to non-Hispanic white Americans who are 10 years younger,” co-author ZhiDi Deng, a pharmacy scholar on the University of Toronto, mentioned in a college information launch.

Learning extra about racial/ethnic variations in listening to loss could assist enhance prevention efforts, in line with the authors.

They discovered that Black Americans 65 and older had been almost half as more likely to report severe listening to loss in 2016 and 2017 (about 9%) as white Americans in that age group (about 15%).

After accounting for age, intercourse, earnings and training ranges, the researchers concluded that older Black Americans had been 91% much less more likely to have listening to loss than white folks in the identical age group, in line with the examine.

The outcomes had been lately printed within the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

“The racial/ethnic difference in hearing problems is intriguing,” mentioned examine co-author Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of University of Toronto’s Institute of Life Course and Aging.

“Hearing loss is one of the most common chronic problems affecting older adults,” she said in the release. “Those with hearing loss tend to have lower quality of life and a higher prevalence of depression and hospitalization. Understanding the causes and drivers behind the racial/ethnic differences in hearing loss can help us design better preventative strategies as the Baby Boom cohort ages.”

Relevant elements could embrace racial/ethnic variations in eating regimen, smoking, noise publicity and bone density, the researchers instructed.

“More research is needed to understand the extraordinary differences in hearing,” Fuller-Thomson mentioned.

More info

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has extra about listening to loss.

SOURCE: University of Toronto, information launch, Nov. 24, 2021