State of research and program development for adults with hearing loss

Hearing loss is common with a growing body of evidence of its global impact on our patient population. There remains much to learn about the mechanisms and epidemiologic, genetic, and other biobehavioral risk factors associated with hearing loss and its chronic disease sequelae, as well as how hearing healthcare, surveillance, and clinician-based training programs can best reduce the overall health burden among older individuals with hearing loss. This paper provides an update on the state of research for adults with hearing loss. The goal of the paper is to educate the reader on what is known and highlight areas where further work is still needed.