significant hearing loss .
The NYT estimated that until the annual Consumer Electronics Show held in January in Las Vegas , companies might not have their best products ready . Best Buy plans to train employees specially and get products into stores by November . Bose is planning a big push later on , wanting to pin down design first , since nearly 75 % of people over 80 have measurable hearing loss , and half of those over 70 ; the market for these will be enormous .
Hearing loss contributes heavily to dementia by increasing social isolation and depression . Dr . Frank Lin , director of the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health , has pointed out that brain scans have taught us that hearing loss is linked to a faster rate of brain atrophy . Additionally , it contributes to social isolation , another risk factor for dementia . Hearing helps with balance and thus hearing loss can increase the risk of falls , with all the accompanying misery or tragedy . Dichotic hearing tests involve testing by simultaneous stimulation of the right and left ear with different sounds . Dementia risk has a tighter association with poor ability on these tests than with simple pure tone hearing detection . However , you have to be able to hear at the under-50 decibels level to make these dichotic tests feasible to diagnose a central auditory disorder .
The problem with hearing aids is that people lose them , cuss them , refuse to wear them out of misplaced pride or find them intolerably whistly . Various authors have found that 18-30 % of people
leave their devices on the shelf every day . The hope for improved habitual usage has always been the improvement of technology to the point that the pluses far exceed the blow to one ’ s vanity or pocketbook , or both . As with everything else in U . S . health care , Black and low-income users are far more likely to avoid dealing with hearing loss at all , due to lack of access , high prices and distrust that anything ( or anyone ) will actually help them .
I am wishing that the wizards at Apple will try their luck at evolving their AirPods to hearing aids . I like the sound of Bell Labs getting involved . As my beloved mother-in-law Hertha used to say , “ I trust Lufthansa .” I trust Apple and Bell Labs , and hope that a reputable marketer like Costco will obtain a solid , unfussy hearing enhancer and price it under $ 1,000 . Then , as more and more competitors enter the market , the cost may fall to even more reasonable levels and the newly-enhanced hordes will shout en masse , “ Hear Hear !!”
References :
1
https :// www . nytimes . com / 2022 / 10 / 10 / health / hearing-aids-fda . html ? searchResultPosition = 1
2 https :// www . fda . gov / news-events / press-announcements / fda-issues-landmark-proposal-improve-access-hearing-aid-technology-millions-americans
3 https :// hearingnumber . org
Dr . Barry is an internist and Associate Professor of Medicine ( Gratis Faculty ) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine , currently retired and mulling her next moves .
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