1 in 10 People Have Tinnitus: NOT Convinced

I am not convinced by this statistic which the medical field seems to quote a lot.

I currently work in a department with 65 people. That means around 6 people should have tinnitus. Nobody else has it. In my last place of 250 employees where I had spent over 12 years, I must have known over 100 of them well and only one other person had tinnitus which didn't bother him. It was known I suffered from it because I was off work for a few weeks back in 2010. Just wondering where all these T sufferers are as the percentage of people I know who have it is not 10%. I think it is misleading and can make T appear like a common thing, which it isn't, not real, permanent T.

I believe this statistic that is quoted can undermine how devastating real T is and is not generally helpful. What do other folk think?

 

I think the statistic is true, in fact probably an underestimate. As you say, that statistic is probably inflated to account for the people who have a non-debilitating type of tinnitus, which is a lot of the ageing baby boomer population, as well as a lot of youth who set their ipod volumes up too loud.

My whole family has tinnitus, especially my parents because they are in an older age group and have developed their T over a long period of time. They do not go through any agony because of their condition, however, and have easily habituated. I go through bad T spikes here and there, but overall I am a lot luckier than many on this site.

But I think such high statistics are ultimately a good thing. If it is seen as a prevalent condition there will be more incentive to treat it and find working cures. Although I likewise believe that people with more severe T need a greater portion of the representation in this population of T sufferers, so that the urgent message of help really gets across.

 

How do they even come up with that statistic? That's what i want to know.

 

What do I think? You mean we are even that much more special?

 

If you attend a tinnitus convention where everybody has it, in a room of 100 people with tinnitus, 100% have it.
Maybe I should do the stand up?

 

That's only true if you think T is evenly distributed in the population, which isn't necessarily true. When I go to the ENT and/or the hearing aid center, I'm always the youngest one in the waiting room. Ear problems (like many other health issues) aren't evenly distributed in the population (they often affect older folks more, obviously).

You could go sample a retirement home and see if you get the same results.

 

http://hearinghealthfoundation.org//index.php?pg=tinnitus_statistics

Tinnitus is prevalent: 25 million to 50 million people in the United States experience it to some degree.

In the past year, about 22.7 million adults in the U.S. experienced tinnitus for more than three months, or about 10 percent of the adult population of the United States.

Approximately 16 million people seek medical attention for their tinnitus, and for up to two million patients, debilitating tinnitus interferes with their daily lives.

 

Interesting to have other folks opinions. Still seems like 1 in 10 is too high. I guess it also depends on what is classed as tinnitus in that statistic

 

Yes, and yes.
As a figure it addresses nothing. Causes, intensity, effect on quality of life, accompanying symptoms? Its like saying X percent of people have some arthritis, but then making no distinction between a bit of pain in the knuckle vs crippling systemic rheumatoid arthritis. Its worse than not-helpful because when stats like that get tossed around with no regard for detail, then it delegitimizes the experience of those of us for whom it is a true ordeal, by lumping us all in with those who just find it a bit annoying at times. This brings to mind that Sydney ENT who told the Law Society of NSW that compensation for tinnitus caused in the workplace was "problematic" because intrusive tinnitus sufferers tended to be "that kind of person anyway" (?).

I wish I was bullshitting.

 

My father hears something when he's on complete silence and pays attention to it. Most people do. I hear something most of the time, he has Tinnitus, I have Tinnitus. Having Tinnitus and Severe Intrusive Tinnitus are very different things. As in most conditions, cases are different. Even a Tumor can be of the not-that-big-of-a-deal kind, or can kill you.