Hearing Impairment Resulting from Infections as a Child

A recent study published in the Ear and Hearing journal indicates that you might have an increased likelihood of suffering from hearing loss if you had any earaches or other infections as a child.

The Newcastle Thousand Families Study is an extensive study that has been surveying participants for a period of approximately seventy years in Britain. Over one thousand newborn infants have been evaluated from the time of their birth in the year 1947 to assess various health-related and developmental factors over time.

The researcher, Dr. Mark Pearce from Newcastle University reported that the findings from the study indicate that those children who suffered from infections went on to have hearing loss by the time they reached the age of sixty and above.

It is important to note that those with hearing loss after the age of 60 did not only suffer from ear infections as a child. This means that children did not necessarily have to be limited to ear infections to suffer from hearing loss as older adults. Other ailments such as respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, or even cases of tonsillitis were found to contribute to hearing loss later in life.

The results of the study indicate that several factors can contribute to hearing loss. Age is simply one of these factors, but other environmental stressors and seemingly unrelated illnesses as a child can also lead to hearing loss as an older adult. This is why it is important to take care of the hearing of younger children so that they can enjoy the world of sound even as an older adult.