Hearing Loss

Hearing loss, impairment or deafness may be of two major types: one that develops some time in life, one that a baby is born with – or congenital deafness. Most commonly, hearing loss is seen with age or is caused by exposure to loud noises.

What is hearing loss?

More than 10 million people in the United Kingdom have some form of hearing loss. Of these about 688,000 are severely or profoundly deaf.

Types of Hearing Loss

Causes of Hearing Loss

Symptoms and Diagnosis of Hearing Loss

Treatment of hearing loss

Preventing Noise-induced Hearing Loss

Age-Related Hearing Loss (ARHL) / Presbycusis

Hearing Loss Research

Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL)

Conductive Hearing Loss

Newborn Hearing Screening

Dealing with Hearing Loss

See more featured articles »

Hearing Loss and Genetics

Recent Developments in Hearing Technology

What is Safe Listening?

Latest Hearing Loss News and Research

Traffic noise exposure linked to higher risk of developing tinnitus

If you live near a busy road, it may increase your stress levels and affect your sleep. When we are under stress and sleep poorly, we may be at a higher risk of developing tinnitus.

3 Feb 2023

The trajectory of long-COVID in the general population of Scotland

Researchers presented the findings of the Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) conducted nationwide among the general population of Scotland.

2 Feb 2023

Cochlear avatars provide a platform for deciphering the mechanisms of sensorineural hearing loss

Disabling hearing loss affects one in every ten people and up to 25% of people over 60, according to the World Health Organization, and can have both genetic and environmental causes such as infections and noise exposure.

1 Feb 2023

Setting new guidelines for innovative services to prevent Alzheimer's disease

Memory loss, behavioral changes, cognitive deficits: Alzheimer's disease leads to a dramatic loss of autonomy for those affected and has a heavy impact on health costs.

31 Jan 2023

Rural seniors benefit from pandemic-driven remote fitness boom

Eight women, all 73 or older, paced the fellowship hall at Malmo Evangelical Free Church to a rendition of Daniel O'Donnell's "Rivers of Babylon" as they warmed up for an hourlong fitness class.

17 Jan 2023

Study sheds light on how an employee's hearing loss can impact their work experience

Hearing loss cases are climbing globally -; 1 in 5 adults are affected -; along with a growing number of older workers who are more likely to experience hearing loss.

15 Jan 2023

Older adults with greater severity of hearing loss more likely to have dementia, study finds

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that older adults with greater severity of hearing loss were more likely to have dementia, but the likelihood of dementia was lower among hearing aid users compared to non-users.

10 Jan 2023

Wayne State researcher wins $1.7 million NIH award to understand and tackle cisplatin-induced ototoxicity

A Wayne State University researcher has received a $1.7 million, five-year award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health for the study, "Targeting nitrative stress for treatment of cisplatin ototoxicity."

5 Jan 2023

Checkerboard-like arrangement of inner ear cells vital for hearing, research reveals

A Japanese research group has become the first to reveal that the checkerboard-like arrangement of cells in the inner ear's organ of Corti is vital for hearing.

27 Dec 2022

Improving neuroplasticity hastens hearing among cochlear implant recipients

Kick-starting the brain's natural ability to adjust to new circumstances, known as neuroplasticity, improves how effectively a cochlear implant can restore hearing loss, a new study in deaf rats shows.

21 Dec 2022

Community health worker program delivers low-cost device to improve hearing in older adults

A first-in-kind program that trains trusted older adult community health workers to fit and deliver low-cost hearing technology to peers with hearing loss significantly improved communication function among participants, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.

20 Dec 2022

Study looks at the possibility of promoting hair cell regeneration using cell reprograming

About 430 million people around the world experience disabling hearing loss. In the United States, approximately 37.5 million adults report some trouble hearing. Hearing loss can happen when any part of the ear or the nerves that carry information on sounds to the brain do not work in the usual way.

8 Dec 2022

The disability tax: Medical bills remain inaccessible for many blind Americans

A Missouri man who is deaf and blind said a medical bill he didn't know existed was sent to debt collections, triggering an 11% rise in his home insurance premiums.

2 Dec 2022

UH researcher aims to find causal pathways to developmental disabilities among children in rural Zambia

Of the 2.6 billion children in the world, 11% or 291.2 million are estimated to have one of four developmental disabilities – epilepsy, intellectual disability, vision loss and hearing loss. Ninety-five percent of these children live in low- and middle-income countries, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to recent estimates.

20 Nov 2022

Scientists validate safe surgical access to the central core of human cochlea

An international team of scientists and surgeons, including researchers from the University of Sheffield, has, for the first time, validated safe surgical access to the central core of the human cochlea.

10 Nov 2022

Personalized whole genome sequencing approach could double the diagnostic rates of rare diseases

Tailoring the analysis of whole genome sequencing to individual patients could double the diagnostic rates of rare diseases, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

7 Nov 2022

Accelerating Scientific Discoveries through Advanced Data Analysis Platforms

In this interview, we speak to Victor Wong, Chief Scientific Officer at Core Life Analytics, about their StratoMineRTM product and how it helps researchers to rapidly process their data.

From Core Life Analytics 3 Nov 2022

New hearing screening system for newborns uses a smartphone and low-cost earbuds

Newborns across the United States are screened to check for hearing loss. This test is important because it helps families better understand their child's health, but it's often not accessible to children in other countries because the screening device is expensive.

31 Oct 2022

Game-based test that detects hearing loss in children wins European innovation medal

A game-based test that detects hearing loss in children has recently been awarded a European innovation medal. Both the test and the technology behind it have been developed by Norwegian researchers.

27 Oct 2022

Scientific Grand Prize awarded to renowned hearing loss researcher

M. Charles Liberman, PhD, whose research forever changed the way experts understand the underlying causes of hearing loss, has been awarded the Scientific Grand Prize from the France-based La Fondation Pour l'Audition.

21 Oct 2022