Over-the-counter hearing aid FDA ruling can help millions, brings hearing health into public eye: experts

Soon, everyone will be able to hear the news: By mid-October, hearing aids will be as easily available as reading glasses.

Audiology experts hailed the new federal rule allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter. Besides putting hearing loss on a par with other health issues, it may make the devices more affordable; be a good first step toward taking care of a hearing problem for people hesitant to go to an audiologist; strip aging stigma from the issue, and help protect people from the comorbidities that go along with a reduction in hearing.

“We’ve overlooked hearing as a really important indicator of health,” Dr. Sarah Sydlowski, president of the American Academy of Audiology, told the Daily News. “All of the conversation leading up to the regulation have elevated hearing to the level of importance it deserves as a health condition.”

The Food and Drug Administration rule applies to hearing aids for people over age 18 who suffer from mild to moderate perceived hearing loss and goes into effect in mid-October.

“We’ve been fighting for affordable and accessible hearing health care for many years,” Barbara Kelley, executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), told The News. “This is another avenue where people can take a step on their own if they perceive that they have hearing loss. It just opens another avenue for people to pay attention to their hearing health.”

A myriad of problems flow from hearing loss. It’s connected to diabetes, heart disease, cognitive decline, social isolation, anxiety, depression and overall quality of life. It raises one’s risk of falling, and it impedes communication with one’s health care provider, making it harder to comply with medical instructions.

Higher rates of anxiety, depression and isolation occur as people withdraw socially because they can’t hear what’s going on around them.

“Hearing really connects us to people,” Sydlowski said. “It keeps us vital in our jobs, it helps us to stay socially connected as we age, it’s essential for our relationships and maintaining our relationships. It helps keep us sharp and engaged and able to do the things that we love, what matters most to us in our lives.”

The ruling could benefit millions of people, but since most don’t admit they have a problem, statistics are scant. What experts do know is that 80% of people who could benefit from a hearing aid wait an average of seven years, until it’s unbearable. By then many of the ancillary issues have already set in.

Stigma keeps many people away, and the fact that aids will be on the shelves in pharmacies gives them a chance to experiment.

“We’ve always needed something for someone who’s on the fence,” Phoenix audiologist Dr. Clifford Olson told The News. “People kind of get their feet wet — it’s like a steppingstone. You come in on an entry-level thing, and you realize what’s missing, and you want better.”

Some people may well progress to an audiologist.

“When over-the-counter readers came out, they actually led to an increased adoption of prescription eyeglasses,” Olson said. “And I expect to see hearing aids follow the same historical trajectory.”

Meanwhile, “a hearing loss that’s treated at 50% of maximum is better than a hearing loss treated at 0% of maximum,” Olson said.

“It really puts hearing health in the mainstream,” Kelley said. “People will start to say, ‘You know, I need to start taking care of my hearing loss.’ And it becomes not that dark bad thing that happens to old people.”