‘Tinnitus affects millions of Brits’

A SURVEY of 2,000 adults commissioned by Oticon, a leader in advanced audiology and hearing aid technology, has revealed that tinnitus affects millions of Brits.

New research into hearing loss in the UK revealed a substantial 21% of respondents experience tinnitus symptoms such as ringing, buzzing or persistent noise in their ears.

The Oticon hearing loss survey results showed very little distinction between the age of respondents reporting tinnitus symptoms, with between 16% and 24% of sufferers in each age category.

Tinnitus can be experienced by anyone, as well as be temporary or permanent, constant or intermittent. It’s symptoms are most commonly associated with damage caused by exposure to loud noise. This was demonstrated in the survey which supports that attending loud concerts (37.8%) and nightclubs (23.6%), as well as listening to loud music (22.4%) and standing near loudspeakers (23.4%), are the main activities that cause the respondents’ tinnitus symptoms.

More than half of those who suffer from tinnitus also admitted to regularly enjoying loud music, with two thirds of these doing so at least once a week.

Oticon is supports this week’s first-ever Tinnitus Week, which has brought the world’s biggest tinnitus organisations together to promote awareness of tinnitus and its many sufferers.