The loss of hearing - be it gradual or acute, mild or severe, present since birth or acquired in older age - can have significant effects on one's communication abilities, quality of life, social participation, and health. Despite this, many people with hearing loss do not seek or receive hearing health care. The reasons are numerous, complex, and often interconnected. For some, hearing health care is not affordable. For others, the appropriate services are difficult to access, or individuals do not know how or where to access them. Others may not want to deal with the stigma that they and society may associate with needing hearing health care and obtaining that care. Still others do not recognize they need hearing health care, as hearing loss is an invisible health condition that often worsens gradually over time. In the United States, an estimated 30 million individuals (12.7 percent of Americans ages 12 years or older) have hearing loss. Globally, hearing loss has been identified as the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Successful hearing health care enables individuals with hearing loss to have the freedom to communicate in their environments in ways that are culturally appropriate and that preserve their dignity and function. Hearing Health Care for Adults focuses on improving the accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults of all ages. This study examines the hearing health care system, with a focus on non-surgical technologies and services, and offers recommendations for improving access to, the affordability of, and the quality of hearing health care for adults of all ages.

This book is an original scholarly book that introduces the concept of preventive audiology, with a specific focus on the African context, which is in line with the South African re-engineered primary healthcare strategy as well as the World Health Organisation’s approach. The book reflects on contextually relevant and responsive evidence-based perspectives, grounded in an African context on preventive audiology, in four major ear and hearing burdens of disease within the South African context: (1) early hearing detection and intervention, (2) middle ear pathologies, (3) ototoxicity, and (4) noise-induced hearing loss. The book represents innovative research, seen from both a South African and global perspective. It offers new discourse and argues for a paradigm shift in how audiology is theorised and performed, particularly in low-and-middle-income country contexts. The goal of this book is to motivate a paradigm shift in how the ear and hearing care is approached within this low-and-middle-income country context while arguing for Afrocentric best practice evidence that leads to next practice.

The success of any preventive healthcare programme is reliant on a functional healthcare system. Within this system of care, healthcare professionals, including audiologists, can only practice safely and effectively if they possess an appreciation of the complexities and challenges that exist in that context. Where healthcare professionals have such awareness that aids them to recognise opportunities for errors that can cause patients harm and where they take steps to prevent these mistakes is where preventive audiology is positioned. This edited book, Complexities and Challenges in Preventive Audiology: An African Perspective, is a sequel to another book by the current editor titled Preventive Audiology: An African Perspective. While in the process of editing that book, the editor identified that a lacuna of contextually relevant collation of evidence on complexities and challenges faced by the field of audiology within the African context in implementing preventive audiology existed. The goal of this book is to delve into these complexities and challenges for various key areas in audiology. All chapters deliberate on evidence-based perspectives grounded in the African context, with deliberate and preferential reliance on contemporary locally relevant evidence that allows for accurate reflection of current complexities and challenges in ear and hearing care delivery within the African context. Contributors were encouraged to be as comprehensive as possible in their review of the literature within the African context, where available. Complexities brought about by context, such as cultural and linguistic diversity as well as traditional and alternative healthcare, on preventive audiology within the South African context, are also covered in this book. As each chapter explores prevailing complexities and challenges, potential solutions and recommendations for all challenges identified are also offered, having carefully and deliberately engaged with local evidence, local context, and local policies and regulations to ensure an Afrocentric contribution to the world of evidence. All chapters in the book have a goal of ensuring that increased efforts are directed towards the provision of clinical services that are driven through best practice by contextually relevant and responsive evidence.

This book systematically discusses the pathogenesis, prevention, and the current and potential clinical treatment of hearing loss, as well as the latest advances in hearing research. Hearing loss is a prevalent sensory disorder, which according to a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report affected 9% of the global population in 2015. As populations continue to age, more and more people are suffering from the condition, with 60% of those aged between 65 and 75 affected. Hearing loss seriously affects patients’ ability to work ability and quality of life, and as such deafness has become an increasingly urgent social problem around the globe. Sensorineural hearing loss is mainly caused by damage to the hair cells (HCs), and the subsequent loss of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). Damage to the HCs in the inner ear can result from exposure to loud noises and environmental and chemical toxins as well as genetic disorders, aging, and certain medications. This book provides ENT specialists and researchers, as well as individuals affected a comprehensive introduction to the field of hearing loss.

Hearing Loss: Causes, Prevention, and Treatment covers hearing loss, causes and prevention, treatments, and future directions in the field, also looking at the cognitive problems that can develop. To avoid the “silent epidemic of hearing loss, it is necessary to promote early screening, use hearing protection, and change public attitudes toward noise. Successful treatments of hearing loss deal with restoring hearing sensitivity via hearing aids, including cochlear, brainstem, or midbrain implants. Both the technical aspects and effects on the quality of life of these devices are discussed. The integration of all aspects of hearing, hearing loss, prevention, and treatment make this a perfect one-volume course in audiology at the graduate student level. However, it is also a great reference for established audiologists, ear surgeons, neurologists, and pediatric and geriatric professionals. Presents an in-depth overview of hearing loss, causes and prevention, treatments, and future directions in the field Written for researchers and clinicians, such as auditory neuroscientists, audiologists, neurologists, speech pathologists, pediatricians, and geriatricians Presents the benefits and problems with hearing aids and cochlear implants Includes important quality of life issues

More than 31 million people in the United States alone suffer from hearing loss - that is one in every 10 people in the current population. Of those, only five to 10 percent can be treated medically, leaving the largest number in need of other solutions. It is for those people that veteran audiologist Susan Dalebout wrote this comprehensive guide. The book explains, with a simple overview of hearing anatomy and physiology, how we hear, and details hearing evaluation tests, the interpretation of those tests, and the conditions that most commonly cause hearing loss in adults. All things related to adult hearing loss are explained, as is a full menu of hearing rehabilitation services, devices, and technology. This text includes discussion of the importance of hearing in our lives, the psychological, social and emotional effects of untreated hearing loss, and the effects on family members and friends. Also included is a chapter on prevention, describing the dangers of exposure to hazardous noise and certain drugs, and how to protect against damage to hearing. Unique for its breadth and depth, this text also offers detail on hearing aids, care and maintenance as well as factors to consider when purchasing an aid, cochlear implants, hearing-assistance technology, and future trends in hearing restoration.

This book is an original scholarly book that introduces the concept of preventive audiology, with a specific focus on the African context, which is in line with the South African re-engineered primary healthcare strategy as well as the World Health Organisation's approach. The book reflects on contextually relevant and responsive evidence-based perspectives, grounded in an African context on preventive audiology, in four major ear and hearing burdens of disease within the South African context: (1) early hearing detection and intervention, (2) middle ear pathologies, (3) ototoxicity, and (4) noise-induced hearing loss. The book represents innovative research, seen from both a South African and global perspective. It offers new discourse and argues for a paradigm shift in how audiology is theorised and performed, particularly in low-and-middle-income country contexts. The goal of this book is to motivate a paradigm shift in how the ear and hearing care is approached within this low-and-middle-income country context while arguing for Afrocentric best practice evidence that leads to next practice.