Korean War veteran Bruce L. Douglas, DDS, MPH
The Spring issue of Hearing Health magazine is arriving in mailboxes. This issue’s theme of Veterans & Hearing Preservation is in recognition of Memorial Day and the Fourth of July later this spring and summer. We share these statistics below highlighting how hearing conditions continue to affect our service members and veterans.
Tinnitus and hearing loss are routinely the top two health conditions among military veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers.
More than 1.3 million veterans were receiving disability compensation for hearing loss, and more than 2.3 million received compensation for tinnitus, according to the 2020 Veterans Benefits Administration compensation report.
Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of veterans with tinnitus also had a diagnosis of anxiety, 60 percent had depression, and 58 percent had both conditions, according to a 2015 study in the International Journal of Otolaryngology.
Our service members and veterans, like Dr. Bruce Douglas above, a veteran of the Korean War, deserve all we can do for them. Your support of our Emerging Research Grants program helps us fund much-needed research to help veterans, active service members, and all who live with hearing loss, tinnitus, or related conditions.
One way to help all those with hearing conditions is to become a Research Pioneer, a special group of friends who give a monthly gift to support HHF. Research Pioneers provide predictable funding we can count on to fund life-changing scientific breakthroughs.
Learn more about how our service members and veterans are disproportionately affected by hearing loss and tinnitus on our veterans page, and thank you for your gift of any amount to support research to help us better understand hearing and balance conditions.
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