TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital technology for remote hearing assessment—current status and future directions for consumers
AU - De Sousa, Karina C.
AU - Moore, David R.
AU - Smits, Cas
AU - Swanepoel, De Wet
N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This study received grant funding from the Harry Oppenheimer Foundation. The first author receives support from the Skye Foundation. The second author receives support from the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. Funding Information: This study received grant funding from the Harry Oppenheimer Foundation. The first author receives support from the Skye Foundation. The second author receives support from the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Globally, more than 1.5 billion people have hearing loss. Unfortunately, most people with hearing loss reside in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) where traditional face-to-face services rendered by trained health professionals are few and unequally dispersed. The COVID-19 pandemic has further hampered the effectiveness of traditional service delivery models to provide hearing care. Digital health technologies are strong enablers of hearing care and can support health delivery models that are more sustainable. The convergence of advancing technology and mobile connectivity is enabling new ways of providing decentralized hearing services. Recently, an abundance of digital applications that offer hearing tests directly to the public has become available. A growing body of evidence has shown the ability of several approaches to provide accurate, accessible, and remote hearing assessment to consumers. Further effort is needed to promote greater accuracy across a variety of test platforms, improve sensitivity to ear disease, and scale up hearing rehabilitation, especially in LMICs.
AB - Globally, more than 1.5 billion people have hearing loss. Unfortunately, most people with hearing loss reside in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) where traditional face-to-face services rendered by trained health professionals are few and unequally dispersed. The COVID-19 pandemic has further hampered the effectiveness of traditional service delivery models to provide hearing care. Digital health technologies are strong enablers of hearing care and can support health delivery models that are more sustainable. The convergence of advancing technology and mobile connectivity is enabling new ways of providing decentralized hearing services. Recently, an abundance of digital applications that offer hearing tests directly to the public has become available. A growing body of evidence has shown the ability of several approaches to provide accurate, accessible, and remote hearing assessment to consumers. Further effort is needed to promote greater accuracy across a variety of test platforms, improve sensitivity to ear disease, and scale up hearing rehabilitation, especially in LMICs.
KW - Audiology
KW - Digital hearing evaluation
KW - Hearing health
KW - Hearing loss
KW - Virtual hearing assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114883604&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810124
DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810124
M3 - Article
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 13
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 18
M1 - 10124
ER -