In Summary:
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A popular cleric claims that 16 percent of Africa’s population has hearing problems, and when applied to Liberia, “that means that around 900,000 persons in Liberia have hearing problems”.
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We fact-checked his claim by consulting the WHO Status Report on Ear and Hearing Care in the WHO African Region and found the statement to be incorrect
On March 3, Bishop Kortu Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Church Aid Incorporated, claimed that 16 percent of the population in Africa may have hearing problems, and when applied to Liberia, “that means that around 900,000 persons in Liberia have hearing problems.” He cited the World Health Organization (WHO) as his source.
According to WHO, a hearing problem refers to a person who is not able to hear as well as someone with normal hearing — defined as hearing thresholds of 20 dB or better in both ears. Hearing loss may be mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound. It can affect one ear or both ears and can lead to difficulty hearing conversational speech or loud sounds.
Bishop Brown made the claim at a program marking the third observance of World Hearing Day, organized by Church Aid Incorporated in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Starley in Sinje, Grand Cape Mount County.
World Hearing Day is an annual global awareness event led by WHO to raise awareness about deafness and hearing loss and to promote ear and hearing care worldwide. It is observed every year on 3 March and aims to encourage communities, health systems, governments, and individuals to take action to prevent hearing loss and improve hearing care services.
The clergyman highlighted that the hearing situation is alarming and emphasized the need for collective efforts to combat the problem.
The Claim
Bishop Brown’s exact statement: “I want you to know that the WHO says 16 percent of the population in Africa may have hearing problems right now. If that is true, that means that around 900,000 persons in Liberia have hearing problems.”
Rating Justification
Claim 1: What percentage of Africa’s population has hearing problems?
To fact-check this claim, we consulted the WHO Status Report on Ear and Hearing Care in the WHO African Region. The report shows that Africa alone has about 40 million people with hearing loss, which represents a prevalence of 3.6%.
Prevalence refers to the proportion of a population that has a condition at a specific time.
The African Region has a population of about 1.19 billion people. This means that out of 1.19 billion people, approximately 40 million people, constituting 3.6 percent, are living with hearing loss in the WHO African Region.
Conclusion
Based on these findings, we conclude that the claim made by Bishop Kortu Brown that 16 percent of Africa’s population have hearing problems currently citing WHO data is misleading. Data from WHO he mentioned shows that Africa alone has about 40 million people with hearing loss, which represents a prevalence of 3.6%, not 16 percent.
Claim 2: How Many People in Liberia have hearing problems?
To fact-check this, we reviewed WHO Status Report on Ear and Hearing Care in the WHO African Region, but found no exact official figure specifically for Liberia.
However, Liberia’s 2022 Population and Housing Census thematic report on persons with disability provides relevant data.
It shows that 3.7% of the population aged 5 years and older reported some difficulty hearing while 0.4% reported a lot of difficulty or cannot hear at all.
Combining these figures gives a total of 4.1% of the population, which equals approximately 215,000 people living with some kind of hearing problems in Liberia, based on a total population of 5.25 million.
Conclusion
The claim by Bishop Brown that “around 900,000 persons in Liberia have hearing problems” is incorrect. According to Liberia’s 2022 Population and Housing Census, a total of 4.1% or 215,000 people are living with hearing problems in Liberia, not 900,000 as claimed by Bishop Brown.
