World Hearing Day 2019: check your hearing!

“Worldwide, more than 180 million people older than 65 years have hearing loss that interferes with understanding normal conversational speech. (…) Untreated hearing loss affects communication and can contribute to social isolation and loss of autonomy, with associated anxiety, depression and cognitive decline.” World Report on Ageing and Health, WHO, 2015

World Hearing Day is held on 3 March each year to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world. In 2019 WHO has decided to draw attention to the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss. Many people live with unidentified hearing loss, often failing to realize that they are missing out on certain sounds and words. The main messages are thus that people at higher risk of hearing loss such as adults above 50 years should check their hearing regularly. On the other hand side, services for early identification and intervention should be made available through the health system.

Material is made available on the WHO website for any person or stakeholders wishing to join the movement and disseminating these messages.

Read more on WHO website

In 2018 AGE joined forced with key stakeholders to celebrate the World Hearing Day and participated in an event in the European Parliament. Read our article here

Check out this Danish good practice on ageism and deafness posted as part of our “Ageing Equal” campaign.