We all surely remember what our parents drilled into our brains about listening to loud music: Turn that sh*t down or you’ll go deaf! As it turns out, the prevalence of young people suffering from hearing loss thanks to loud music may be much lower than previously believed, according to a new report published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Although the latest findings go against recent research, the researchers warned that we should still be cautious of our exposure to loud noises over time.
The paper’s authors, from the University of Minnesota, believe that conventional hearing tests are producing false positives when measuring low levels of hearing loss in children and teenagers. According to U of M Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences professor Bert Schlauch, who headed the study, 10 percent or more of children are falsely identified as having noise-related hearing loss this way.
Full story: Crank That iPod: Hearing Loss Rates Lower Than Thought | Wired.com