Hearing

Dr. Archelle Georgiou is back to chat about hearing and the implications of hearing loss.

Hearing in Public Health 

1. Hearing Loss in Babies and Children (genetics and maternal infections during pregnancy)
1. A CDC study that followed school-aged children identified with hearing loss into young adulthood (21 through 25 years of age) found that:
1. About 40% of young adults with hearing loss identified during childhood reported experiencing at least one limitation in daily functioning. 
2. About 71% of young adults with hearing loss without other related conditions (such as intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or vision loss) were employed.
2. VS
3. Hearing Loss in old age
1. Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, comes on gradually as a person gets older. It seems to run in families and may occur because of changes in the inner ear and auditory nerve. Presbycusis may make it hard for a person to tolerate loud sounds or to hear what others are saying.
2. Age-related hearing loss usually occurs in both ears, affecting them equally. The loss is gradual, so someone with presbycusis may not realize that he or she has lost some of his or her ability to hear.
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• Where is Public Health's focus?adults or children or equally?

1. CDC’s suggestions is to make sure all kids get vaccines to prevent hearing loss, but it seems to be an opposite opinion on those who are “anti-vaccination”, how do we change that?

• Hearing Screenings

1. School aged hearing screenings (screenings done in school)
1. Are they still doing this? Is it something that could become law for public schools?
2. For adults 
1. Affordable with medicare (see below)
2. Do seniors know to get a hearing screening?

• Prevalence

1. Approximately one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those older than 75 has difficulty hearing.

• Cost 

1. Children
1. During the 1999 – 2000 school year, the total cost in the United States for special education programs for children who were deaf or hard of hearing was $652 million, or $11,006 per child.
2. The lifetime educational cost (year 2007 value) of hearing loss (more than 40 dB permanent loss without other disabilities) has been estimated at $115,600 per child.
3. It is expected that the lifetime costs for all people with hearing loss who were born in 2000 will total $2.1 billion (in 2003 dollars).