SS08: HEARING SCREENING IN ADULTS

HEARING SCREENING IN ADULTS: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Davis A, Smith P

University of Manchester, MRC Hearing and Communication Group, United Kingdom

Most people who seek an audiological assessment for a hearing problem in the UK are aged about 72 years and have had a hearing problem that would have benefited from intervention for the last 10 - 15 years. There is no reason to expect that the situation is any different in other European countries. In fact there may be poorer take up as some countries do not have a completely free of charge audiology and hearing aid service as is the case in the UK. Our work has shown that screening programmes are effective and provide good value for money in the UK, where they are targeted at a specific hearing deficit about ten years earlier than the average person who consults would have done so. However, the same model cannot be easily applied to other countries. The factors that are important in providing good value for money in systematic and ad-hoc screening programmes will be systematically investigated using current data that are available from the UK and elsewhere. It will be shown that important consideration of the vision and aims of the programme are vital in providing better outcomes and value for money.