Gaming for extended periods of time may put players at risk of permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, according to a new scientific paper published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Public Health.
Back in 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) partnered with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to publish guidelines for the amount of time individuals could safely listen to sounds without incurring the risk of hearing loss. The amount of ‘permissible’ time was dependant on the volume of the sounds, and their intensity over time, as well as the listeners’ age.
For example, adults were advised to listen to 83 dB sounds for no more than 20 hours per week, but for children that duration would drop to 6.5 hours. The WHO has noted in the past that some recreational pasttimes - such as attending concerts or clubs - could exceed these guidelines, and according to the authors of the new study, gaming for extended periods and watching esports could similarly put many people at risk of tinnitus, and permanent hearing loss in later life.
The researchers took into account data collected over the course of 14 peer-reviewed studies and supporting materials that explored aspects of gaming and sound across a range of devices and settings, including on console, mobile, and in communal gaming centres, which encourage the use of headphones.
Each of the studies had their own strengths and weaknesses when it came to contributing to the paper. Some for example relied on study participants self-reporting on their perceived correlation between gaming sessions and tinnitus. Others did not directly evaluate the association, but instead provided relevant information, by, for example, detailing the sound levels of various games, and the average duration played by study participants per week.
The researchers concluded that the myriad studies, when taken together, suggested that gaming may indeed be a “common source of unsafe listening, which could place many individuals worldwide at risk of hearing loss and/or tinnitus”. However, its worth noting that the findings of the new paper are not conclusive, nor were they designed to be.
The new paper is an example of a ‘scoping review’, which is a type of study that analyses existing research on an emerging area of interest in order to map available data, and identify gaps in knowledge that could be addressed by future studies. As such it has a number of limitations when compared to more focussed studies that would seek to answer a specific question. Furthermore, the methods are not unified across the constituent studies, and some of the research used to inform the paper dates back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Regardless, the authors of the study caution that further research is needed to explore the relationship between gaming and hearing issues, and that steps should be taken to promote safe listening, and inform gamers of the potential long term dangers associated with the art form.
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Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
