In the Apple Hearing Study conducted at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (UMich), about 78 percent of participants had experienced tinnitus. This is one of the findings of the Apple Hearing Study, the largest tinnitus survey to understand the effects of sound on hearing health, shared by UMich researchers and Apple. The study, which involved 160,000 participants, focused on the demographics and characteristics of tinnitus patients in order to inform research into potential treatments in the future.
Richard Neitzel, professor of environmental health sciences and global public health and director of the Occupational Health and Safety Engineering Center at the UMich School of Public Health, said that tinnitus can have a big impact on people's lives, and the trends in people's tinnitus experiences that we have learned from Apple's hearing research can help us better understand which groups are most at risk, which can help guide our efforts to reduce the impact of tinnitus. The Apple Hearing Study provides UMich with an unprecedented opportunity to better understand tinnitus in different populations, to gain current scientific knowledge, and ultimately to improve the management of tinnitus.
Tinnitus, the feeling of sounds that others can't hear, can occur in one or both ears in many people. The sound of tinnitus comes in many forms, but the most common is tinnitus, which can be instantaneous or long-lasting. The symptoms and experience of tinnitus can vary from person to person and can also vary from person to person.
Tinnitus can affect a person's overall quality of life, for example: affecting sleep, concentration, or the ability to hear sounds clearly. To deepen your understanding of tinnitus, the first thing to know is to learn more about who experiences tinnitus, how different people experience tinnitus differently over time, the potential causes of tinnitus, ways to control tinnitus and how effective they are.
The study found that 77.6% of participants had experienced tinnitus in their lifetime, and many of them had an increased incidence of tinnitus on a daily basis with age. People aged 18-34 and older are 3 times more likely to hear tinnitus every day than people aged 55-34. In addition, male participants had a 2.7% higher rate of tinnitus per day compared to women. However, 4.8% more men said they had never experienced tinnitus.
In the Apple Hearing Study, UMich's research team tried three main ways to alleviate existing tinnitus: using noise machines (28%), listening to nature (23.7%), and meditation (12.2%). Less than 2.1% of participants opted for cognitive and behavioral therapies to control tinnitus.
There is no reliable way to prevent tinnitus due to the complexity of its causes, but protecting your hearing and controlling your stress levels can reduce your chances of tinnitus. In this study, participants cited "noise trauma" or exposure to excessive noise as the main cause of tinnitus (20.3%), followed closely by stress (7.7%).