Resources

Co-hosted by HEAR Centre and the Australian Hearing Hub, this webinar series with leading experts in hearing and public health explores and challenges current thinking on hearing loss in older adults – from a mere inconvenience to a major public health problem.

Hearing: Taking a Public Health Approach

A special issue of Public Health Research & Practice, produced in partnership with Macquarie University Hearing Professors Catherine McMahon and Bamini Gopinath, and Soundfair, looks at hearing loss and public health.

In the editorial, the issue’s guest editors from Macquarie University and Soundfair call for a National Action Plan to address health inequities engendered by a society that 'disables and stigmatises hearing loss'.

The landmark WHO World Report on Hearing – Hearing Care for All: Screen, Rehabilitate, Communicate aims to raise awareness among policymakers and the public of the rising global prevalence of hearing loss to make ear and hearing care a key public health priority.

Professor Catherine McMahon, Director of the HEAR Centre at Macquarie University Hearing provided editorial guidance, working closely with the WHO, and brought the expertise of Australian leaders in this field to the forefront to develop the first World Report on Hearing.

The World Report estimates that a fifth of people live with hearing loss and it is the third ranked cause of years lived with disability. Hearing loss is expected to increase to impact a quarter of the global population by 2050 with growing and ageing populations. The cost of hearing loss is high: around $1230 billion dollars is lost globally due to unaddressed hearing loss. In Australia, the cost is about $20 billion, mostly due to lost productivity and health system costs.

The WHO is calling for ear and hearing care to be a priority for policy makers to address with all age groups, with the report providing a framework of how to address key issues. While Australia is regarded as a world leader in research and the development of implantable hearing solutions and support services for children and adults with hearing loss, there remain significant areas of ear and hearing care need among older adults and Indigenous Australians. Amongst these groups hearing issues are highest but access and uptake of, ear and hearing care remains low.

HEAR Director, Professor Catherine McMahon is a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss, which aims to identify ways to reduce the global burden of hearing loss. Themes of the Commission are prevention, policy, technology, and protection, and their interactions.

Professor McMahon is the Chair of the Innovations in Hearing Health sub-group.