How do you take care of your hearing to safeguard against hearing loss? Turn the volume down, use hearing protection, and limit the time you ‘listen’ to loud sounds. The message of this year’s World Hearing Day is “take care of your ears and listen safely”.

On 3 March the World Health Organization will focus on the importance of safe listening to maintain good hearing throughout life. The key messages, which we encourage you to share with as many people as possible, are:

• with ear and hearing care it is possible to have good hearing throughout life​
• many common causes of hearing loss can be prevented, including exposure to loud sounds​
• more than 1 billion young people world-wide are at risk of hearing loss from extra-loud music players, concerts and music. Aotearoa New Zealand data is limited for children, but researchers suggest we are heading towards more than one in five Kiwis having preventable hearing loss due to noise.
• noise-induced hearing loss in young children is associated with impaired language acquisition, learning difficulties, anxiety and attention-seeking behaviours.
• people of all ages should follow safe listening practices to reduce the risk of hearing loss from recreational sound exposure.​