Why Help? » Aid The Silent

Why Help?

About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears. (1) More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. (1)

Approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. (1)

Men are more likely than women to report having hearing loss. (2)

One in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears, based on standard hearing examinations. (3)

About 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 54 have disabling hearing loss. The rate increases to 8.5 percent for adults aged 55 to 64. Nearly 25 percent of those aged 65 to 74 and 50 percent of those who are 75 and older have disabling hearing loss. (4)

The NIDCD estimates that approximately 15 percent of Americans (26 million people) between the ages of 20 and 69 have high frequency hearing loss due to exposure to noise at work or during leisure activities.(5)

Roughly 10 percent of the U.S. adult population, or about 25 million Americans, has experienced tinnitus lasting at least five minutes in the past year. (6)

Among adults aged 70 and older with hearing loss who could benefit from hearing aids, fewer than one in three (30 percent) has ever used them. Even fewer adults aged 20 to 69 (approximately 16 percent) who could benefit from wearing hearing aids have ever used them. (7)

As of December 2012, approximately 324,200 cochlear implants have been implanted worldwide. In the United States, roughly 58,000 devices have been implanted in adults and 38,000 in children.(8)

Five out of 6 children experience ear infection (otitis media) by the time they are 3 years old.(9)

Severe to profound hearing loss is expected to cost society $297,000 over the lifetime of an individual. (10)

Most of these losses (67%) are due to reduced work productivity, although the use of special education resources among children contributes an additional 21%. Life time costs for those with prelingual onset exceed $1 million. (11)

Genes are responsible for hearing loss among 50% to 60% of children with hearing loss. About 20% of babies with genetic hearing loss have a “syndrome” (for example, Down syndrome or Usher syndrome). (12)

Infections during pregnancy in the mother, other environmental causes, and complications after birth are responsible for hearing loss among almost 30% of babies with hearing loss. (13)

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during pregnancy is a preventable risk factor for hearing loss among children. (14)

14% of those exposed to CMV during pregnancy develop sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) of some type. About 3% to 5% of those exposed to CMV during pregnancy develop bilateral moderate-to-profound SNHL. A 2005 HealthStyles survey by CDC found that only 14% of female respondents had heard of CMV. About one in every four children with hearing loss also is born weighing less than 2,500 grams (about 5 1/2 pounds). (15)

Nearly one-quarter of children with hearing loss has one or more other developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, or vision loss. (16)

Two million Americans are profoundly deaf (7.5 per 1,000). During the 2001–02 school year, 42,361 students were identified as having a hearing loss. (17)

Approximately 50% rely on communication methods other than spoken English.
Approximately 40% are identified as having additional conditions.
92.6% of their mothers are hearing.
86.4% of their fathers are hearing.
12.7% of them have a deaf or hard-of-hearing sibling.
71.7% of their family members do not sign regularly.
The racial/ethnic backgrounds of these children nationwide are:
- 52.6% white
- 15.9% black/African American
- 22.8% Hispanic/Latino
- 0.8% American Indian
- 4.2% Asian/Pacific Islander
- 1.7% other
- 2.0% multi-ethnic background

Deaf children are more vulnerable to neglect, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse than children in the general population. (18)

50% of deaf girls have been sexually abused as compared to 25% of hearing girls. (19)

54% of Deaf boys have been sexually abused as compared to 10% of hearing boys. (20)

Individuals with disabilities are over four times as likely to be victims of crime as the nondisabled population. (21)

Children with communication disorders are more likely to be physically and sexually abused than children without these disorders. (22)

Maltreatment of children with disabilities is 1.5–to–10 times higher than of children without disabilities (23)

Immediate family members perpetrate the majority of neglect, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. Extra-familial perpetrators account for the majority of sexual abuse. (24)

Sexual abuse incidents are almost four times as common in institutional settings as in the community. (25)