What is World Hearing Day and what is it trying to achieve?

World Hearing Day (annually on 3 March) is the largest global awareness campaign on ear and hearing care that calls for action to address hearing loss.

World Hearing Day aims to:

Promote public health actions for ear and hearing care.
Stimulate inter-sectoral partnership for ear and hearing care.
Raise awareness on hearing loss and care at a national and community levels across the world.
Encourage behavior change towards healthy EHC practices.

Why 3 March?

3.3 resembles the shape of the two ears

Why World Hearing Day matters?

Approximately 466 million people live with disabling hearing loss. An overwhelming majority of them reside in low- and middle-income countries and commonly lack access to required services and interventions. Unaddressed hearing loss is the leading cause of morbidity and poses an annual cost of $750 billion globally.

It is expected that the prevalence of hearing loss will rise considerably in coming decades due to changing population demographics, increasing exposure to risk factors such as recreational noise, as well as persistence of untreated ear conditions such as otitis media.

Many of the causes that lead to hearing loss are preventable. In children, 60% of hearing loss can be prevented through public health strategies. Those who have hearing loss can greatly benefit from timely and appropriate interventions. Hearing care and hearing loss were highlighted as a public health issue with the adoption of the resolution (WHA70.13) on prevention of deafness and hearing loss during the World Health Assembly in 2017. This resolution calls upon WHO and its Member States to undertake advocacy through World Hearing Day on 3 March.

World Hearing Day is the ideal opportunity to spread the word and raise the profile of ear and hearing care in people’s mind, in the world’s media and on the global health agenda.

Information from the World Health Organization