Counting the global cost of hearing loss.
An article in the International Journal of Audiology estimates that a 5% reduction in hearing loss prevalence would cut the total global economic costs of hearing loss by $49 billion.
Two authors from the LSE and one from the World Health Organisation indicated the total global economic costs of hearing loss exceeded $981 billion in 2019.
Nearly half of the costs related to the quality of life losses, with 32% due to additional costs of poor health in people with hearing loss. 57% of costs were outside high-income countries, and 6.5% of costs were for children aged 0–14.
The authors concluded that “small reductions in prevalence and/or severity of hearing loss could avert substantial economic costs to society. These cost estimates can also be used to help in modelling the cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent/tackle hearing loss and strengthen the case for investment”.
In 2019, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) estimated that more than 1.57 billion people have some form of hearing loss (more than 20 decibels of hearing loss) (GBD 2019 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators 2020). Overwhelmingly, hearing loss goes unaddressed; globally only 17% of people in need of hearing aids make use of them, ranging from 23% in Europe to just 10% in Africa (Orji et al. 2020).
Although there are estimates on the costs of hearing loss for different population groups at individual country level, e.g. (Deloitte Access Economics 2017; Reed et al. 2018; Schroeder et al. 2006), systematic reviews reveal that there are very few estimates of the comparative costs of hearing loss across countries, especially comparative analyses that include low and middle-income countries (Hjalte, Brannstrom, and Gerdtham 2012; Huddle et al. 2017).
This paper provides an estimate of the global costs of hearing loss in 2019, covering all levels of hearing loss reported in the GBD after adjustment for the use of hearing aids, refining the approach we used to produce an initial estimate of costs for 2015 (World Health Organisation 2017). Our analysis indicates that these costs go well beyond the health and educational impacts of hearing loss, with the majority related to exclusion from the labour force and poor quality of life.
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Read more on the full paper.
