Link Between the Race and Deafness

In the Deaf community many people are either born Deaf or later in life become Deaf. Epidemiologic studies of hearing loss in adults have demonstrated that the odds of hearing loss are substantially lower in black than in a white individual. Skin pigmentation is associated with hearing loss independent of race/ethnicity. This is from not only the color of your skin but the likely hood of developing an ear infection and radiation from the sun.

To start off with, race plays only a small part in how a person becomes or is born deaf. White people are more susceptible to becoming deaf than black people. This is further supported in a smaller epidemiological study that investigated rates of hearing loss in work environments that different people are surrounded by. White people are more likely to lose their hearing and become deaf in noisy work environments, such as construction sites, manufacturing plants, and airports, than black people in the same work environment. Hispanics face similar statistics, where lighter Hispanics become deaf more than darker Hispanics.

Secondly, the skin pigment of a person can be an aspect on how a person becomes deaf. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health said that in race-stratified analyses, darker-skinned Hispanics had better hearing than lighter-skinned Hispanics by an average of −2.5 dB hearing level (HL; 95% CI, −4.8 to −0.2) and −3.1 dB HL (95% CI, −5.3 to −0.8) for speech and high-frequency PTA, respectively.

With that showing it clears that white skin people are more likely to develop a hearing problem than those who are colored. Therefore saying that its shown that in lower rates of hearing loss among black than white participants with the odds of hearing loss generally 40–60% lower in black individuals.

Lastly, ear infections have an effect on everyone, no matter what race or skin color. Therefore according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, the average loss of sound due to fluid in the ear is 24 decibels, with that it’s either the fluid drains out or it stays. When the infection stays it could cause hearing loss and severe pain due to swelling, discharge or the thick buildup of dry skin which narrows the ear canal. Ear infections are normally found in children but can develope in adults as well as any race at any given time of a persons life.

The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorder are exploring many areas to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of middle ear infections, with that there are three different types of ear infections, acute otitis media which is the more common ear infection people normally get then theres otitis media with effusion which is when the infection is gone but the fluids stay trapped behind the ear drum, and lastly theres chronic otitis media with effusion which happens when the fluids stay in the middle ear for a long time or returns over and over again, but with this infection if not treated correctly or at all it could leave some hearing lose or damage to your hearing.

In conclusion, what I found on race and deafness is that race only really plays a small part in how someone is born or becomes deaf. This is from that fact that even though whites are more susceptible to hearing lost its still undetermined that its for a fact white people are higher up to become or be born deaf compared to every other race.