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 routinely the top two health concerns among military veterans at U.S. 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 fiscal year 2020 Veterans Benefits Administration compensation report.

    • In addition, 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. (Please refer to research by an Emerging Research Grants scientist studying blast effects on the brain and hearing.) Blast exposure can also lead to decreased sound tolerance, or hyperacusis, among veterans, according to 2019 research published in Science Reports.

  • A 2015 study in the International Journal of Otolaryngology found that 72 percent of veterans with tinnitus also had a diagnosis of anxiety, 60 percent had depression, and 58 percent had both conditions.

    • A 2021 paper in Military Medicine concluded that mental health symptoms are strongly associated with tinnitus severity, after examining a random sample of nearly 900 Veterans diagnosed with tinnitus. The likelihood of screening positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety was higher among those who reported moderate, severe, or very severe 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.

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