A study by academics at the University of Manchester has found that people living in the north of England are up to 85% more likely to develop hearing loss than those living in the south of the country.
The study, which looked at 8,263 people aged between 50 and 89, found that 24.6% of those from the North East, 22.6% of those from Yorkshire and Humber, and just 14.6% of those in the South East, had hearing loss. Dr Dalia Tsimpida commented:
“We cannot imply causality at this stage; behind it might be the result of socio-economic factors such as high occupational noise exposure from manual occupations and differences in regions of England with strong and weak manufacturing industries.”