Veterans

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Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) thanks our U.S. service members and veterans for their sacrifices. This group is disproportionately at risk for tinnitus and hearing loss.

  • Tinnitus and hearing loss are consistently among the top 10 service-connected disabilities among veterans who receive benefits. According to the 2024 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Annual Benefits Report, tinnitus ranked 1st and hearing loss 5th.

    • More than 1.5 million veterans receive disability compensation for hearing loss, and over 3.2 million receive it for tinnitus, according to the advocacy organization Veterans Help Group.

    • Effective after April 2025, the VA announced is eliminating tinnitus as a standalone disability rating. This means tinnitus will only be compensable if it’s tied to another service-connected condition. These changes could go into effect by the end of 2025, according to VA Claims Insider, a company that helps veterans file disability claims.

      • Veterans who were already rated for tinnitus will be grandfathered in and won’t lose existing benefits.

      • New tinnitus claims may require a linked condition (like hearing loss or traumatic brain injury) to qualify for compensation.

    • Many veterans who have typical hearing test results have trouble understanding speech. This can be a result of auditory processing disorders, which is often associated with blast exposure. Vijaya Prakash Krishnan Muthaiah, PT, Ph.D., a 2019 Emerging Research Grants scientist generously funded by Royal Arch Research Assistance, is studying blast effects on the brain and hearing.

  • According to a 2021 Military Medicine study, about half of the 900 veterans surveyed said their tinnitus was moderate to very severe, with nearly one in five calling it very severe.

    • Veterans with worse tinnitus were much more likely to also have mental health symptoms. Those with very severe tinnitus were about 17 times more likely to screen positive for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), 15 times more likely for depression, and 13 times more likely for anxiety compared to veterans with little or no tinnitus.

  • The incidence of tinnitus in service members has risen dramatically, according to a 2019 American Journal of Audiology study by the South Texas VA Health Care System and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

    • Scientists examined the health records of over 85,000 active duty service members and found that the rate of tinnitus more than tripled from 2001 to 2015.

Updated November 2025.

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