Europe can’t ignore hidden hearing loss any longer

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: Polina

The title of this Q&A in The Parliament, which covers politics and policy in the European Union, was a little confusing to me until I understood the point Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alex Agius Saliba was trying to make.

To those of us in the hearing health and noise activist world trying to make the world a quieter place, the term “hidden hearing loss” has a specific meaning: cochlear synaptopathy not detected by routine hearing tests, causing people to complain that they can’t understand one conversation among many in a noisy environment.

What Saliba is discussing is something entirely different, the fact that a pilot project in Malta found that 41% of participants had considerable untreated hearing impairment.

“Many participants were unaware they were living with hearing loss disability. If nearly half of those screened in one Member State required intervention, similar unmet needs almost certainly exist across the European Union,” he said.

Saliba goes on to state that awareness of hearing loss cannot rely on passive detection. He wants the EU to prioritize early detection and prevention “through structured, community-based screening programs.” 

But there are three problems with his proposal that the EU “respond decisively at scale.” First, current research has not shown any benefit to screening for hearing loss in adults. This may change if research shows that providing hearing aids to older people with hearing loss prevents or delays the onset of dementia, but that research is still being done.

Second, no country can afford to provide hearing aids to every citizen who might benefit from them. Additionally, a study in Germany found that many people with hearing loss declined to get hearing aids, even though the aids were covered by the country’s national health insurance program.

Third and perhaps most importantly, screening to detect hearing loss will not help prevent noise-induced hearing loss. Hearing loss is not part of normal physiological aging, but largely represents the cumulative effect of a lifetime of excessive noise exposure. What is commonly called age-related hearing loss is really noise-induced hearing loss in elderly persons.

Fortunately, preventing noise-induced hearing loss is simple and inexpensive. If it sounds loud, it’s too loud and one’s auditory health is at risk. Turn down the volume, leave the noisy environment or use hearing protection devices to protect one’s ears.