Address hearing loss issues

Yesterday was observed as World Hearing Day, an event the World Health Organisation (WHO) established in 2007 to create awareness of hearing loss.

The Day, which has since been observed on March 3, every year, focuses on the importance of safe listening as a means of maintaining good hearing throughout one’s life.

The global theme for this year’s celebration is‘To Hear for Life, Listen with Care’.

The theme emphasises the importance of everyone trying as much as possible to safeguard their hearing or auditory system by avoiding things that cause its loss.

The Audiologist in charge of the Hearing Assessment Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Mrs Jemima Anowa Fynn, says, for instance, that frequent noise from industries, musical instruments or sound systems like public address system, public gatherings like funerals and vehicles can cause hearing loss.

Thus, she mentions some of the sufferers of the condition as pastors, band members, and factory workers in heavy-machine -noise-making environment.

From her analysis, some suffer the condition because of the environment they find themselves in such as the workplace but for others, the condition is self-imposed.

The self-imposed causes include excessive use of earphones, the habit of playing very loud music in fully-rolled up cars where bystanders can still hear from these cars, and motorbikes fitted with loud noise-making devices.

While hearing loss is not known to have caused mortality, it deprives sufferers of the opportunity of securing certain jobs, particularly security services and driving.

In jurisdictions like the US where any health condition matters as the other, the statistics present the problem accurately for solution.

It is reported in the US, for instance, that over 15 per cent of American adults have hearing loss, and the problem is twice as common as diabetes or cancer, with the report specifying that one out of five men and one out of eight women report they have some trouble hearing.

In Ghana, statistics on hearing loss cases may not give the clear or complete picture because they regard only those who report for assessment.

However, one can guess that judging from the common sight of young Ghanaians using the earphone or earpiece and the fact that the assessment centre at Korle Bu talks of rising cases, one would not be wrong to suggest that if nothing is done about the situation, the country would be grappled with rising cases of hearing loss unimaginable.

This is why there is the urgent need for the government to heed the call by the Hearing Assessment Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to provide hearing assistive devices for patients with hearing loss and give some tax waivers on medical products to reduce their prices.

One of the ways to address hearing loss is the use of hearing aids like noise protectors.

This is important to stem the increasing number of cases of hearing loss in the country, particularly in the case of children.

This is because even though hearing loss is harmful to people of all ages, a research says it has special implications for children because babies and young children need to hear in order to develop spoken language and build the foundation for spoken communication, social development and educational success.

It is said that like any other condition, hearing loss can have far-reaching implications for sufferers and their family members and friends.

It is also the case that untreated hearing loss can impact the sufferer’s health as well as his or her well-being and that people with hearing loss have higher rates of depression and anxiety, while the condition also causes under-stimulation of the brain.

From the information provided, it is obvious that hearing loss deserves serious attention and so the government must provide the needed assistance for the health authorities to deal with it.