Black Americans are less likely to lose their hearing with age

FRIDAY, Dec. 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Older black Americans are much more likely to have good hearing than white Americans, and the difference is especially noticeable in men, a new study shows.

“We found that non-Hispanic black Americans have a hearing loss that is similar to non-Hispanic white Americans who are 10 years younger,” said co-author ZhiDi Deng, a student. in Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. in a school news release.

Learning more about racial / ethnic differences in hearing loss can help improve prevention efforts, according to the authors.

They found that black Americans aged 65 and over were almost half as likely to report severe hearing loss in 2016 and 2017 (about 9%) than white Americans in this age group (about 15%).

After looking at age, gender, income and education levels, the researchers concluded that older black Americans were 91% less likely to have hearing loss than white people in the same age group, according to the study.

The results were recently published in Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

“The racial / ethnic difference in hearing problems is intriguing,” said study co-author Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of the Institute of Life and Aging at the University of Toronto.

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

Relevant factors may include racial / ethnic differences in diet, smoking, noise exposure, and bone density, the researchers suggested.

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

More info

The US National Institute on Aging has more information on hearing loss.

SOURCE: University of Toronto, press release, November 24, 2021