Abstract
Objective: To report a robust measure of the proportion of adults who do not use their hearing aids.
Design: Data on hearing aid use was extracted from national household survey data, from 2004 to 2018 in Wales, UK.
Study sample: A representative sample of 10,000 to 16,000 adults per year.
Results: Self-reported hearing difficulty increased smoothly from 14 to 16% during the 12 years when survey administration remained unchanged. The proportion reporting that they had tried a hearing aid increased from 5 to 7% and stabilised at this level since 2011. The proportion who reported using their hearing aid most of the time increased from 47 to 52% during the 15-year period. The proportion who did not use their hearing aids at all decreased from 21 to 18% over the same period.
Conclusions: In this extensively-surveyed population, approximately 20% of adults currently do not use their hearing aids at all, 30% use them some of the time and the remaining 50% most of the time. Hearing aids are valued by many, as judged by use, but there is substantial room for improvement. Inclusion of questions on use within a large-scale, regular national survey enables the collection of demonstrably reliable data.
Design: Data on hearing aid use was extracted from national household survey data, from 2004 to 2018 in Wales, UK.
Study sample: A representative sample of 10,000 to 16,000 adults per year.
Results: Self-reported hearing difficulty increased smoothly from 14 to 16% during the 12 years when survey administration remained unchanged. The proportion reporting that they had tried a hearing aid increased from 5 to 7% and stabilised at this level since 2011. The proportion who reported using their hearing aid most of the time increased from 47 to 52% during the 15-year period. The proportion who did not use their hearing aids at all decreased from 21 to 18% over the same period.
Conclusions: In this extensively-surveyed population, approximately 20% of adults currently do not use their hearing aids at all, 30% use them some of the time and the remaining 50% most of the time. Hearing aids are valued by many, as judged by use, but there is substantial room for improvement. Inclusion of questions on use within a large-scale, regular national survey enables the collection of demonstrably reliable data.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 567-573 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | International Journal of Audiology |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Jul 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright the Author(s) 2020. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Keywords
- hearing aids
- use
- non-use
- difficulty
- survey