Auditory Injuries in the US Military

[attheedgeofscience]

An editorial from 2017 concerning statistics on tinnitus and hearing loss has been published in the journal Elsevier. Since facts and figures indicating prevalence can be hard to obtain due to information being paywalled, hereby the graph showing disability awards for the US veterans population over a 17-year period.

No doubt the decade-long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are contributing to the out-of-control surge that is seen in the figures. As of the latest tally from the Hearing Center of Excellence, both tinnitus and hearing loss disability awards account for more than one million cases each.

The editorial can be found via this DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2017.04.010

 

[hans799]

I feel for these soldiers.

However, I also hope that this will provide an ever larger incentive for private companies and the government to step up and invest serious money in NIHL/Tinnitus research.

One of the very few good things about tinnitus is that at least it has a large prevalence. Imagine if this were an orphan disease.