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More than 77 percent of people who participated in a big Apple-sponsored study<\/a> have experienced tinnitus at some point in their lives, according to preliminary data<\/a>. Around 15 percent say they\u2019re affected daily by tinnitus<\/a>, perceiving ringing or other sounds that other people can\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In one of the largest surveys of its kind, researchers at the University of Michigan gathered data from more than 160,000 participants who responded to survey questions and completed hearing assessments on Apple\u2019s Research app since 2019. The goal is to study the effects of sound exposure through headphones, how tinnitus impacts people, and perhaps develop new methods for managing the symptoms. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe trends that we\u2019re learning through the Apple Hearing Study about people\u2019s experience with tinnitus can help us better understand the groups most at risk, which can in turn help guide efforts to reduce the impacts associated with it,\u201d University of Michigan environmental health sciences professor Rick Neitzel said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe trends that we\u2019re learning through the Apple Hearing Study about people\u2019s experience with tinnitus can help us better understand the groups most at risk\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Tinnitus is a widespread issue that can affect daily life. For comparison, around 10 percent of adults in the US grapple with some form of tinnitus, according to estimates<\/a> from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the way people get tinnitus, which can be triggered by exposure to loud noise, may be changing with the devices people use. Tinnitus used to be associated more with workers exposed to a lot of noise on the job. Over the past decade, listening to music through headphones, attending concerts or sports events, and other \u201crecreational\u201d noise exposures have become a bigger concern to researchers. Previous studies suggest<\/a> that for people who live in urban areas, listening to music could be the biggest source of noise exposure. Apple\u2019s iPods, smartphones, and headphones have no doubt played a part in that trend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unsurprisingly, \u201cnoise trauma\u201d \u2014 which Apple calls \u201cexposure to excessively high levels of noise\u201d \u2014 was the leading cause of tinnitus participants identified in the new study. Roughly 10 percent of people in the Apple-backed study said that tinnitus interferes with their ability to hear clearly. The researchers also found that the duration of a tinnitus episode \u201csignificantly increases\u201d with age. Nearly 36 percent of participants aged 55 or older experience constant tinnitus compared to 14.7 percent among all adults. To cope, more than half of participants turn to noise machines or nature sounds to manage their tinnitus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The study could \u201chelp develop new products to optimize your hearing experience and reduce the likelihood of hearing loss,\u201d the University of Michigan says<\/a> on its website. And Apple advertises some of its devices\u2019 features as ways \u201cApple products can help,\u201d like using the Noise app on Apple Watch to get notifications when loud sounds around you reach a level that could be risky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This hearing study is one of three ongoing projects run through the Apple Research app (the other two have to do with heart health and menstrual cycles). Participants in the hearing study need to be adults living in the United States. They don\u2019t need to use Apple headphones to join the study, except<\/em> for certain tone and tinnitus exercises calibrated to AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, AirPods, or EarPods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n