RNID: For deaf and hard of hearing people.

Who is affected by hearing loss?

One in seven people in the UK, and one in two people over the age of 60, have some degree of hearing loss. It is therefore the third most common chronic condition overall and can have a devastating impact on someone's life. Children born with a hearing loss may not fully develop speech and find education more challenging than hearing children. Older people who are losing their hearing can find communication increasingly difficult, which can lead to isolation and loneliness.

Types of hearing loss

Hearing loss can occur due to damage in different parts of our ears which leads to different types of hearing loss:

  • conductive deafness: sound cannot pass freely through the outer or middle ear
  • sensorineural deafness: deafness is caused by a problem in the cochlea or auditory (hearing) nerve
  • neural deafness: there is no auditory nerve or it is damaged so that the inner ear can no longer send information to the brain.

Of these, sensorineural hearing loss is the most common. Although there is currently no way to cure sensorineural hearing loss, medical and scientific research is making remarkable progress towards understanding the causes of hearing loss and tinnitus, raising the possibility of new treatments to protect and improve hearing, and to alleviate tinnitus.

What is being done to help?

In the following sections, you can find out what research is being done world-wide and how RNID have contributed to changing the world for deaf or hard of hearing people or people who have tinnitus.

  • Causes of deafness
    There are many different causes of deafness, ranging from genetics to noise exposure and aging. By understanding the causes of sensorineural deafness, we can attempt to find new ways to prevent or treat hearing loss.
  • Protecting hearing
    Progress is now being made towards medicines that could prevent hearing loss
  • Improving hearing
    Devices, such as hearing aids, cochlear implants and brain stem implants, are currently still the best way to improve hearing and are being improved all the time.
  • Restoring hearing
    Currently, hearing cannot be restored once the sensory structures in the ear have been damaged. But scientists are making exciting progress.
  • Tackling tinnitus
    There is still no cure for tinnitus, but light is being shed on its causes which is helping development of new ways to alleviate tinnitus.

How is RNID helping?

Despite hearing loss affecting 9 million people in the UK alone, research into hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus lags behind that of other disciplines. To address this problem, RNID set up its funding schemes for academic research in 1999 and has been driving forward research into causes and possible treatments. You can read about the projects and scientists RNID has funded. We also work with industry to take these findings from universities and turn them into real treatments.

We would like to thank the generosity of all our supporters who have made this research possible. Find out ways you can help.