Loss or hearing difficulties will affect perception and social skills. Those who are hearing impaired can be hard to understand speech or instructions given. That would affect social relationships, performance, and power of cognitive impairment. Deafness usually starts with hearing loss.
A research team from Columbia University Medical Center stated, adolescents who are obese are more likely to experience hearing loss. While teens are slender, less likely.
The study said, teenagers with obesity risk of hearing loss at all frequencies. Human hearing frequency divided by 3 is the frequency infrasound, with a range of 0-20 Hz, the frequency of audible 20-20000 Hz, and ultrasonic frequencies, with ranges> 20,000 Hz. They are also more likely to experience a loss of hearing in one ear.
This study analyzed the data of 1,500 respondents older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for adolescents aged 12-19 years in 2005-2006.
Interviews were conducted in the home include health history, health conditions, medication use, smoking, social economy, and a variety of demographic factors such as history of exposure to noise.
Study author Professor Anil Lalwani of the Department of Otolaryngology / Head & Neck Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center stated, the study found that hearing loss has to do with work sensorineural in humans.
In adolescents with obesity ability censorineural to hear down due to damage to the nerve fibers in the inner ear. Thus the ability of adolescents to hear, at all frequencies go down.
Average hearing loss are most numerous at low frequencies, below 2 thousand Hz. Adolescents with obesity 15 percent suffer from hearing loss, while the non-obese only 8 percent.
Teens who lost his hearing at low frequencies, they understand human words. But they found it difficult to hear when in groups or in the environment noisy. Although hearing loss cases is relatively small, but the increases were two-fold. It is certainly worrying, especially the number of adolescents with obesity are increasing.
Previous research found that 80 percent of teens with hearing loss are not aware of having experienced it. Lalwani suggests, adolescents with obesity undergoing screening and treatment of hearing to a specific period. This is to prevent hearing loss gets worse and end up deaf.
"The results of this study should be included in the list of adverse effects of obesity. Results can motivate everyone of all ages to lose weight," says Lalwani.