Guest editorial: accessible and affordable hearing health care for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders/National Institutes of Health (NIDCD/NIH) sponsored a research working group on Accessible and Affordable Hearing Health Care for Adults with Mild to Moderate Hearing Loss on August 25 - 27, 2009 in Bethesda, Maryland. The purpose of the working group was to develop a research agenda to increase accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss, including accessible and low cost hearing aids. For the purposes of the working group, mild HL was defined as 26-40 dB HL averaged across 0.5 - 4.0 kHz, and moderate HL was defined as 41-60 dB HL averaged across 0.5 - 4.0 kHz. Why is this working group important at this time? Hearing loss (HL) is a public health issue and is among the leading public health concerns. Approximately 17% of American adults, or 36 million people, report some degree of HL1. HL is the third most prevalent chronic health condition facing seniors2. Yet, fewer than 20% of those with HL who require intervention and treatment seek help for their condition3. Untreated HL has social and economic ramifications. Most hearing aid users have lived with HL for over 10 years and their impairments have progressed to moderate-to-severe levels before seeking a hearing aid4. For many reasons, the current hearing health care (HHC) system in the United States is not meeting the needs of the vast majority of adults with HL. As the lead Federal agency to promote the Nation's HHC, NIDCD has the responsibility and is actively seeking to address this problem from the public health perspective. NIDCD Senate Report Language for FY2010 appropriations “recommends that the NIDCD support research to develop, improve and lower the cost of hearing aids...”5. Further, Healthy People 2020, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) activity that provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for promoting health and preventing disease, includes increasing the adoption rate of hearing aid usage as a Healthy People 2020 goal6. NIDCD is committed to addressing these recommendations and goals through well-developed and targeted research initiatives.