According to the World Health Organization, we talk about hearing loss when one person is no longer able to hear as well as another. The minimum hearing threshold is set at 25 decibels (dB), or a low voice conversation (20 decibels corresponding to whispering).
According to a Handicap-Santé survey conducted by INSEE in 2008-2009, 10 million French people suffer from hearing problems. For 5.4 million of them, these hearing limitations have repercussions on their daily life.
There are four stages in hearing impairments: a mild stage (tinnitus, wheezing only), a medium stage (some difficulties requiring the wearing of a hearing aid), a severe stage, where the patient has difficulty hearing a conversation at home. several, and a very severe or total stage, where the patient declares himself deaf or hard of hearing.
If young people are not spared by slight impairments (tinnitus and wheezing), in particular because of too much listening to music, average, severe and total hearing impairments are all the more important depending on the patient’s age. For example, after 50, one in three people report hearing loss, a figure that rises to one in two after 80.
Yet the loss ofhearing is not inevitable. Supported by a multidisciplinary team, the patient will be able to assess his impairment and then readjust to his environment and begin rehabilitation, and / or be fitted according to his profile.
