Access to hearing services is often limited by health care disparities and financial constraints. This retrospective longitudinal study examined hearing aid uptake and outcomes among low-income adults enrolled in the Dalhousie Hearing Aid Assistance Program-Community Services, a provincially funded initiative in Nova Scotia, Canada, designed to broaden access to hearing health care.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Community-based hearing aid assistance programs can improve uptake and outcomes for underserved adults; audiologists and clinic owners in underserved areas should consider or advocate for similar models to address access gaps.
Hearing care inequity remains a critical public health gap, and evidence-based community assistance program models provide a scalable template for reducing financial and access barriers to hearing aid adoption.
- 01The study targets underserved adults facing financial barriers to hearing aid access—a chronically undertreated population.
- 02Hearing aid uptake rates and longitudinal outcomes were measured in program participants.
- 03Community-based delivery model was evaluated as a mechanism for reducing health care disparity.
- 04Published in American Journal of Audiology (AJA), a respected peer-reviewed source.
- 05Retrospective longitudinal design limits causal inference but provides real-world effectiveness data.
A community-based hearing aid assistance program can increase hearing aid uptake among underserved adults.
studypartially supportedFinancial barriers are a primary driver of unmet hearing aid need in underserved adults.
studysupported- PMID
- 42616510
- DOI
- 10.1044/2026_AJA-26-00091.
- Journal
- American Journal of Audiology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Underserved adults with hearing loss enrolled in a community-based hearing aid assistance program
- Intervention
- Community-based hearing aid assistance program (device provision plus support services)
Primary outcomes
Hearing aid uptake rate; Hearing-related quality of life outcomes