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Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
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7

Opportunities for Action

Hearing is a vital human sense important to communications, health, function, and quality of life. Currently, hearing health care is simultaneously on the brink of and in the midst of innovation and change. Changes in technologies, changes in the delivery of hearing health care services, and changes in opportunities for consumer empowerment and public awareness are occurring at various rates and with various levels of research rigor and evidence. Thus, with the benefit of key institutional, technological, and regulatory changes to improve access and affordability, hearing health care is poised to undergo advances that will help individuals with hearing loss and their families find and fully utilize the appropriate, affordable, and high-quality services, technologies, and support they need. The committee’s findings and recommendations for change are highlighted in Box 7-1 and discussed throughout this report. The recommended actions will require collaborative, determined, and sustained efforts to ensure that stakeholders from across the public and private sectors and across professions come together to provide accessible and affordable hearing health care. Fully developing the array of options for adults of all ages and with all levels of hearing loss (see Table 7-1) requires that hearing loss be recognized as a public health concern that demands multidisciplinary and collaborative efforts by all stakeholders working together with the common goal to improve hearing and communication abilities for individuals and across the population.

Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×
Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×

TABLE 7-1
Hearing Loss–Related Services and Technologies

Services
  • Evaluation and assessment
  • Selection, fitting, adjustment, and maintenance of hearing aids and hearing assistive technologies
  • Auditory rehabilitation
Technologies
  • Hearing aids
  • Over-the-counter wearable hearing devices (proposed)
  • Hearing assistive technologies, including products that connect with other communications technologies (e.g., phones, television)
Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×

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Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×
Page 287
Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×
Page 288
Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×
Page 289
Suggested Citation:"7 Opportunities for Action." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23446.
×
Page 290
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The loss of hearing - be it gradual or acute, mild or severe, present since birth or acquired in older age - can have significant effects on one's communication abilities, quality of life, social participation, and health. Despite this, many people with hearing loss do not seek or receive hearing health care. The reasons are numerous, complex, and often interconnected. For some, hearing health care is not affordable. For others, the appropriate services are difficult to access, or individuals do not know how or where to access them. Others may not want to deal with the stigma that they and society may associate with needing hearing health care and obtaining that care. Still others do not recognize they need hearing health care, as hearing loss is an invisible health condition that often worsens gradually over time.

In the United States, an estimated 30 million individuals (12.7 percent of Americans ages 12 years or older) have hearing loss. Globally, hearing loss has been identified as the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Successful hearing health care enables individuals with hearing loss to have the freedom to communicate in their environments in ways that are culturally appropriate and that preserve their dignity and function.

Hearing Health Care for Adults focuses on improving the accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults of all ages. This study examines the hearing health care system, with a focus on non-surgical technologies and services, and offers recommendations for improving access to, the affordability of, and the quality of hearing health care for adults of all ages.

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