Local hospital develops online program to allow hearing tests at home
With the fall of National Ear Caring Day on Sunday, a local hospital has developed an online self-testing program, allowing people to test their ears at home.
The 2-minute test functions as a primary screening, and those detected to possibly have problems can go to a doctor for professional diagnosis and treatment, Xinhua Hospital said.
There are about 466 million people with hearing loss around the world, covering over 5 percent of the total population. According to the World Health Organization, there will be over 900 million people with hearing loss in 2050, while about half of people between 12 and 35 years of age face the risk of hearing issues, mainly because of earphone use.
Apart for congenital reasons, chronic infections of the ears, noises and medication can all lead to hearing loss. However, long-time earphone use has become a more and more significant cause, especially among young people.
“We are seeing an increasing number of young people with hearing loss in clinical practice in recent years. In some extreme cases, the patients just can’t hear anything after using earphones for the whole night,” Dr Yang Jun from Xinhua Hospital said. “However, the majority of hearing loss is a process and many people don’t have awareness of the gradual deterioration of their hearing.”
The hospital developed the small program on its public WeChat account for people to perform self tests for early detection, as well as to promote awareness around hearing protection.