Listen Up: A New Push to Make Hearing Screening Routine at 50

Welcome to This Week in Hearing. I’m Shari Eberts. Most of us don’t think about our hearing until it’s already getting in the way. Maybe it’s a missed word at dinner or the TV creeping louder. And by the time we notice, we’ve often been losing ground for years. But what if 50 became the age we simply check the way we check our blood pressure, our vision, our cholesterol, so we can see where we stand? And that’s the idea behind Listen Up, a new national campaign from the Academy of Doctors of Audiology and the hearing aid manufacturer WSA, which encourages adults 50 and older to make hearing screening a routine part of their healthcare. Joining me are the 2 people driving this. Dr. Jill Davis is an audiologist and the president of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology. And Mike O’Neill is the US wholesale president at WSA, a global hearing aid manufacturer. So thank you both for being here. It’s great to be able to talk and learn more details about this.

Thank you for having us.

Absolutely. So Jill, let’s start with you. Talk a little bit about how this Listen Up initiative came about and what are some of its Yeah, we are just trying to spread awareness about hearing healthcare.

So this initiative started, we want to bring it to local communities, even though it’s a national campaign, we’re starting state by state. But our goal is to just raise awareness of hearing healthcare and start having people think about screening at the age of 50. It’s also about prevention and early intervention. So the sooner you can start learning more about the hearing that you have and taking action, the better your life will be. And treating sooner than later can help, you know, have healthy aging across the lifespan. So.

Absolutely. I mean, I totally agree with that. And I love the idea of sort of getting this baseline of hearing because it gives people something that they can know, right? Information is power. And then we can monitor over time and just see how we’re doing. But I guess why 50? You know, is there some clinical significance to that age, or is it just kind of that, you know, memorable milestone that we all hit at some point, hopefully? And then is the idea to screen everybody or just certain people who might have risk factors?

Yeah, there’s nothing magical that happens at the age of 50, but we are starting to do all of those other healthcare screens as well. So just like people know to get their mammogram at 40 and colonoscopy at 45, we want the ears to be what we think about at 50. And definitely it’s not only those that are having symptoms and everyone we want to get checked. And so yeah, it’s just hearing healthcare is part of overall healthcare and we, we just want to start that conversation.

Absolutely. I, I totally agree with that. And I think there’s some misunderstanding sort of in the general public that people don’t think about their hearing necessarily where they might go in for a vision screening and they obviously, you know, go to the dentist and other things. So it’s great to really, raise that awareness and get that on the radar screen for sure.

Yeah, and getting a hearing screen doesn’t mean that you have hearing loss, that you need a hearing aid. It just gives you more information so that you’re ready when it is time to get more answers.

Absolutely. And just sort of a baseline to start from, right? So you can see if changes are happening. A lot of times hearing loss, as, as many people listening know, it sort of sneaks up on you because it’s such a gradual process many times, especially with aging. And so it really is good to sort of have that data that you can look at and know when something is actually happening, if it is. So I really like that idea. But Mike, I guess why is Listen Up, you know, of interest to a hearing aid company? I guess some people, if they were skeptical or playing devil’s advocate, they might say, you know, this is sort of a way to jumpstart hearing aid sales. So what’s the motivation for WSA in this process?

Oh, thank you for the question, Shari, and an honor to be with you and Jill on your podcast today. It’s interesting you would mention that, you know, something about hearing aid sales, because this is actually a program about prevention and early screening to identify hearing loss. And so when you put it in that context and you think about the stat, there’s between 5%, you know, 5% of the population that experiences hearing loss as early as 45 to 54 years old. So a little, you know, back to Jill’s response about the age of 50, but this is really about screening. And so That’s maybe the first part to it. The second part, when you think about WS Audiology and Wonderful Sound for All, we really mean all. And when back in 2023, we actually put out our 5-year strategic plan, and it was about helping people live better lives. In fact, our objective was how do we help 10 million people by 2028 hear better and live better through better hearing? It wasn’t about financials at all. Of course, there’s financials behind that, but it was about really helping people. And we believe that people that have better hearing are more engaged, they’re more participative, they’re more inclusive. And here at WSA, we will applaud and cheer for that the best that we can. So I think, you know, and as you mentioned, hearing loss happens gradually. So how important is it for that early screening? How important is it? Because you don’t know how bad your hearing has become until it really is. and oftentimes, and this is a way to catch that earlier so you can enjoy those little moments of life that mean so much. And we’re just privileged to be a part of it and be a partner with ADA with this campaign.

Excellent. No, thanks for explaining that in more detail. I appreciate that. All right, so let’s play it out a little bit, right? Someone goes for the screening and then what happens next, both for someone whose hearing screening comes back, you know, normal or typical, and for someone who might already be showing some signs signs of hearing loss? And then if it’s normal, you know, when should they screen again?

Yeah, we’re hoping that the screenings are happening with their primary care doctor at their other screening appointments. And if the person is not having any hearing loss symptoms and everything is normal, we want this to become routine every year, get tested. If they are having any hearing loss symptoms and the results are normal, that would be a great time to reach out to a local audiologist for a more comprehensive evaluation to get some answers. Also, Also some guidance on prevention, what that looks like as well. And then for those that do come back with some concerns, hopefully we can find the great audiologist in their area to do that comprehensive evaluation. But yeah, we want it to be kind of an annual thing just like other screens so we can monitor over time, especially if they’re preventing their hearing loss in noisy places, we can see if it’s actually working.

Absolutely. So does this relate at all to, I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with sort of the hearing number, right? And Dr. Frank Lin’s work in that area. And I always was really interested in that work as well because it’s a similar idea, at least in my mind, right? Know your baseline and then track it over time. Is this similar to that or are you guys working on it together or, you know, are these just sort of parallel initiatives?

Yeah, we, ADA fully endorses the Hearing Number Campaign. So it’s kind of two ideas of the same story that we want to raise awareness about hearing healthcare and get everyone screened to, you know, keep an eye on their hearing health and track it over time. So yeah, we fully endorse and support that initiative as well. We’re just all trying to do the same thing, I think.

I love that. The more the merrier, right? The more people that are helping people out there understand the importance of their health and their hearing to that health, that, The better. So I appreciate that. So you mentioned, Jill, that, you know, people would do these screenings maybe at their doctor’s office, maybe at an audiologist, maybe sort of just at a primary care visit. But what about people who maybe don’t have access to that or they live in a more rural area? Is there a way to use sort of online screening or hearing tests or remote screening to work with this program as well? What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, absolutely. Any way to get tested or screened the first time, you know, the better. So there are so many advanced online tools at the moment, like even AirPods can screen hearing. And so we, any way that we can remove barriers from that first step, we are all for that. So any, any online screen at any doctor’s office in MA, however we can get that done.

So it’s really flexible, which is great, right? It’s, it’s more about sort of in a way that is comfortable for you, in a way that’s accessible to you to just sort of get that information so that you can track it over time. So it seems pretty flexible and, and hopefully easy for people to take advantage of as well.

As long as when there is a concern or maybe the screen is not, if they’re not passing, that they know how to find an audiologist or someone that can do more comprehensive testing.

Yeah, no, absolutely. So you’ve mentioned a couple of times that Listen Up is also about hearing protection. So what are some of the initiatives around hearing protection that are part of the program?

Yeah, it’s not just about screening and tracking, it’s about how noise-induced hearing loss is preventable and educating the public that there are things that we can do to stop the progression of hearing loss. And so we really want them to not avoid the things that they love, you know, the concerts and the sporting events events and streaming, that just be more aware of exposure and how that can affect their hearing so that we would hope more people will take action to prevent, turn the dial down, wear earplugs so that they can still be engaged and, you know, have better hearing for the lifetime.

And is that something that would be discussed at the screening? Is that the idea that the part of the screening would also be educating about hearing protection or is this something that would happen separately to that?

It’s in the Listen Up campaign. In our videos, we talk about it. So getting people to start thinking about that when you can’t avoid the loud sounds, you know, protect against it. But yeah, once they’ve gone into maybe the audiologist for their test, that’s where they can get more information about proper protection.

Okay, awesome. All right, so Mike, tell us a little bit about the pilot. I guess the first one was in Kentucky, and why did you pick that particular market? How did it go? You know, what kind of metrics are you looking at to help you define the success of that?

Yeah, we’re real excited about this campaign and partnering with the ADA. And you gotta start somewhere, so why not pick the headquarters of where ADA is located? So that’s where Kentucky is at and where it came into play. But in terms of metrics, you know, a campaign like this is really pretty hard to measure, but certainly we’re gonna measure like click-throughs, how many people have become aware of the campaign, and just the public awareness of the screening. I mean, how wonderful would it be if this campaign can help increase, You know, the belief is that only 20% of those with hearing loss actually seek help. And how great would it be if this campaign would be able to contribute to moving the needle on that? We would love that. So all those are the kind of metrics that we will watch. But this is a long-term campaign, and we’re trying to build awareness, and we’re quite frankly still in the testing mode. We’ve launched in basically 5 states now. So we’re testing it out. This campaign is actually kind of the opposite of what you typically see where there’s a national campaign and, you know, a message is kind of pushed down. This is actually a grassroots campaign of where is there support to kind of lift up and participate in it. And we’re excited to see where this can go.

Excellent. And so the follow-on markets, the other 5 markets you mentioned, what are those? And was there some way that you chose those, or are you trying to be sort of geographically diverse, or how did you come up with that?

Yeah, definitely. We want to test some different markets. And in addition to Kentucky, we’ve got Texas, Florida, Colorado, and Illinois, either in play or coming very soon. So we’re excited about those markets. And the way we chose them is one, because it is grassroots, we need an environment where there’s lots of support for it. So where ADA members, where audiologists are asking for a campaign like this, we tend to get our attention because we want to test it in a variety of different markets. Of course, you know, Texas and Florida being big hearing aid markets has to play, you know, a part as well. But those are where we’re starting. And again, we’re testing it and believe we’ve got something pretty special here that we’re excited about.

Excellent. So as you’re rolling it out, are you trying to partner with other organizations or, you know, in a grassroots way? Are you reaching out to different consumer organizations or, you know, sort of how are you thinking that you’re going to grow that initiative in each of these markets?

Yeah, I think definitely partnering with the ADA and with our own sales team and our own employees that we have in those markets. Markets is one way, but also we’ve partnered with lifestyle medicine and other organizations such as that to really encourage that screening to happen, not just, you know, through the traditional audiological ways, but in primary care practices and in different practices where people are generally seeking screenings and having their healthcare, general healthcare performed. So we’re looking to partner with ways there as well just to raise awareness that and that hearing health is part of overall health, and it’s an important aspect of it.

Excellent. All right, well, final question for each of you to answer. What does success look like to you for Listen Up? So maybe Jill, ladies first. Sure.

I think success is thinking about hearing healthcare as overall healthcare, but also someone turning 50 knowing that now’s the time I gotta think about my ears. And once we are in that routine of at the age of 50, we’re getting screened, maybe treating hearing loss earlier, staying connected with loved ones for longer, just having overall improvement in quality of life because we’ve thought about our ears before maybe there was a problem.

Absolutely. And Mike?

Yeah, I mean, Jill’s answer is perfect, but basically we want, we want the Listen Up campaign to normalize the idea that Hearing is part of your overall healthcare, and getting screened is simply part of getting older, the aging process, and should be part of it on an annual basis. That’s what we’d love to see, and that’s what we hope to see.

Excellent. Well, well said, both of you, and thank you both for joining me. If there’s one idea I hope that our viewers take away from this, is that it’s a screening at 50, isn’t a diagnosis, right? It isn’t a purchase. it’s information and a baseline. And knowing where you stand on your hearing and really on any health issue is a powerful form of self-advocacy because it lets you act early on your own terms instead of playing catch-up years later. So I encourage people to learn more about Listen Up at audiologist.org/listenup. So thanks both of you for being here and we’ll see you next time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot.

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