Objective To analyze the global and Chinese disease burden of hearing loss and its changing trends from 1990 to 2019, and to provide data support for the formulation of hearing loss prevention and control measures.
Methods The prevalence, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and other disease burden indicators of hearing loss in the whole world and China, as well as related information such as age and gender, were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease database in 2019(GBD 2019). The basic situation of hearing loss disease burden, the distribution of various indicators in age and gender, and the time trend of changes were analyzed.
Results From 1990 to 2019, the number of people with hearing loss worldwide increased from 752 million to 1.457 billion, with an increase of 93.75%; during the same period, the number of people with hearing loss in China increased from 199 million to 407 million, with an increase of 104.52%. The increase in hearing loss cases in China was higher than the global level. The number of DALYs for hearing loss worldwide increased from 22.01 million person-years to 40.24 million person-years, with an increase of 82.83%, while the number of DALYs for hearing loss in China increased from 5.58 million person-years to 10.48 million person-years, with an increase of 87.84%. From 1990 to 2019, the age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) of hearing loss in the world and China showed an upward trend, with China's rising faster than the world; the age-standardized DALY rate (ASDR) showed a downward trend, with China's falling faster than the world; with age increasing, the number of cases and DALYs for hearing loss showed a trend of an initial increase followed by a decrease; in 1990 and 2019, the ASPR of hearing loss for males in the world or China was higher than that for females (P < 0.001). The proportion of mild hearing loss cases accounted for more than 70% of all hearing loss cases, but DALYs caused by moderate or above hearing loss accounted for more than 60%.
Conclusions The disease burden caused by hearing loss in the world and China is still heavy and has a further increasing trend. Government departments are required to take appropriate measures to prevent hearing loss in order to control the growth of the disease burden.
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