518 - Why the FDA's Approval of OTC Hearing Aids is a Game Changer
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2022
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hearing loss affects two-thirds of people over age 70 and is the single largest modifiable risk factor for dementia and other health problems later in life. Frank Lin, director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health at Johns Hopkins, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the links between hearing loss and dementia, why the new approval means hearing aids will be better, cheaper, and far more available, and how to find your own "hearing number."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:17.1 | and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore. |
| 0:19.7 | Our goal is to bring evidence and experience to illuminate critical public health issues. |
| 0:25.4 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhh.edu. |
| 0:31.6 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:37.3 | Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer, Public Health on Call. |
| 0:40.5 | Today, Stephanie Desmond talks to Frank Lynn, director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at Johns Hopkins, about the FDA's decision to allow for over-the-counter hearing aids and how it could be a real game-changer for the 40 million |
| 0:55.5 | Americans with hearing loss. Let's listen. Frank Lynn, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 1:01.8 | Thanks for having me, Stephanie. So the FDA has approved over-the-counter hearing aids. Tell us |
| 1:09.2 | why that's significant. Oh, so there are 40 million American |
| 1:14.2 | adults with hearing loss. So this is, I mean, literally this has to everyone as we age, this is |
| 1:18.8 | two-thirds, everyone over 70. So in that context, I would say even 10 years ago seen as, |
| 1:24.1 | okay, you guess I'm hearing loss who cares. But that's all changed in the last decade now. For example, we now understand that hearing loss is arguably the single largest |
| 1:31.5 | modifiable risk factor for dementia, as well as having a host of other health effects on just |
| 1:37.5 | our overall ability to engage with others, depression rates, and things like that. So in that context, |
| 1:42.7 | you know, the idea that we may soon have easy |
| 1:45.8 | accident hearing aids is really important because those health effects that may come with hearing |
| 1:51.1 | loss may in fact be potentially modifiable or treatable if we address hearing loss. And yet |
| 1:55.4 | before these reg came out, hearings are incredibly expensive. I mean, the average cost of a pair |
| 2:02.1 | of hearing aids that we estimated with the National Academies a few years ago was $4,700. So that's |
| 2:07.8 | pretty incredible. I mean, that means for the average American, a pair of hearing aids could be your |
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