New research investigating the hearing health of adults in Britain has discovered that 3 in 5 struggle to hear conversations in noisy places; a phenomenon known as the “cocktail party effect”. The “cocktail party effect” refers to our ability to focus on speech of interest in the presence of background noise, for example in noisy social settings. The research, carried out by hearing training experts ear gym , found 3 in 5 people said they “sometimes” or “occasionally” struggle to hear the person they’re speaking to over the background noise.
Almost 1 in 10 (8%) of the adults surveyed said they “always” struggle to hear what somebody is saying to them when there is background noise. Hearing loss affects 12 million adults in the UK. One of the early signs of hearing loss is a difficulty hearing other people clearly and needing people to repeat themselves.
Some individuals with hearing loss will feel fatigued or stressed after socialising due to the cognitive effort required to keep up with conversations. Amanda Philpott, hearing health expert and CEO at ear gym said: “The cocktail party effect might sound like a bit of fun, but if you’re frequently struggling to hear conversations in pubs and noisy places, it might not just be a result of too many cocktails. When adults notice changes in their hearing they often wait years before seeking help, when they could have been protecting and prolonging their hearing that entire time.
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