Suffering silently with tinnitus? You probably feel like you’re the only one with tinnitus, that no-one understands what you’re going through. But you’re not alone. The reality is that globally an estimated 750 million people suffer from tinnitus, just like you.
Carlotta Jarach MSc, Silvano Gallus PhD and their colleagues set out to identify the global prevalence and incidence of tinnitus. In "Global Prevalence and Incidence of Tinnitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis" (2022), they set out their findings from a systematic meta-analysis across 113 peer reviewed journal articles published between 1972 and 2021 to estimate the global incidence and prevalence of tinnitus.
What did they discover? From a macro perspective, Jarach at al estimated that globally 749 million people have tinnitus with 120 million of those with severe tinnitus.
They found that the pooled global average prevalence of tinnitus among adults was 14.4%, but ranged wildly by continent from 5.2% in Africa to 21.9% in South America. For severe tinnitus, the global average prevalence was 2.3%, but in North America was 3.3%. To put that in context, in the United States, that’s more than 10 million people suffering from severe tinnitus.
Across countries, the prevalence of tinnitus varied little by sex, with 14.1% of males versus 13.1% of females having tinnitus.
Age however is a different story. Tinnitus is typically associated as age-related medical condition; the older you are, the more likely you are to have tinnitus. Jarach et al’s findings are substantially consistent with that rule of thumb. However, they also found that a surprisingly large proportion of young adults aged 5-17 also experience tinnitus or severe tinnitus (see below, Tinnitus by Age, Table 1).
Age | 5-17 | 18-44 | 45-64 | 64+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Prevalence | 13.6% | 9.7% | 13.7% | 23.6% |
Severe Tinnitus | 2.7% | 0.4% | 2.7% | 6.9% |
Jarach, et al, identified 12 studies providing information on annual rates of tinnitus incidence with a global average of 1,164 cases per 100,000 person-years. In absolute terms, for the United States, this represents almost 4 million cases per year.
Still feeling alone? You don’t have to. Contact Neuromonics today on +1-720-893-3700 or info@neuromonics.com to talk with someone who understands what you’re going through and discuss how we can help you overcome your tinnitus.