摘要：Objectives. We evaluated the use of hearing health care services (hearing testing and hearing aids) by adults aged 21 to 84 years. Methods. Hearing was tested and medical and hearing health histories were obtained as part of the Beaver Dam Offspring Study between 2005 and 2008 (n = 3285, mean age = 49 years). Results. Of the cohort, 34% (55% of participants aged ≥ 70 years) had a hearing test in the past 5 years. In multivariate modeling, older age, male gender, occupation, occupational noise, and having talked with a doctor about a hearing problem were independently associated with having had a hearing test in the past 5 years. Hearing aid use was low among participants with a moderate to severe hearing impairment (22.5%) and among participants with a hearing handicap (8.6%), as determined by the Hearing Handicap Inventory. Conclusions. Data support the need for improvement in hearing health care. Hearing aids’ effectiveness is limited if patients do not acquire them or do not use them once acquired. Future research should focus on developing effective strategies for moving patients from diagnosis to treatment. Hearing impairment is one of the most frequent chronic conditions in adults in the United States, with epidemiological prevalence estimates reaching 90% in the oldest adults. 1 Hearing impairment is often accompanied by poorer quality of life and is associated with a range of comorbidities including cognitive dysfunction and depression. 2–5 Despite the potential consequences, hearing impairments are often undiagnosed and untreated, and many adults who know they have hearing impairments do not acquire hearing aids. 6,7 As the US population ages, hearing health care needs and hearing loss–related morbidity will be an increasing burden on the nation’s public health infrastructure. A research working group organized by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders recently developed a research agenda addressing issues of accessibility of hearing health care. 8 Recommendations included the need to identify factors that influence a patient’s access to hearing health care and factors that influence a patient’s perceived need and motivation for seeking out hearing health care. Our objective was to determine the prevalence of previous hearing testing and current hearing aid use in a large cohort of adults and to assess characteristics associated with hearing health care use in the general population.
