To identify associations and trends in recency of hearing test in aggregate and race-specific fashion.
✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦
No immediate practice change, but findings reinforce the need to proactively screen underserved racial groups who are less likely to have had recent hearing tests.
✦ Why It Matters ✦
Identifying demographic gaps in hearing test recency can help target outreach and reduce inequitable access to hearing healthcare across the U.S.
✦ Key Points ✦
- 01Study used national survey data to analyze how recently U.S. adults received hearing tests.
- 02Findings are stratified by race, revealing disparities in hearing test recency across demographic groups.
- 03Results have implications for public health outreach and equitable hearing care access.
- 04Epidemiological design limits causal inference but provides population-level insight.
- 05Highlights opportunity for audiologists to prioritize screening for underserved populations.
✦ Claims & Evidence ✦
ClaimEvidenceSupport
There are racial disparities in the recency of hearing tests among U.S. adults.
studysupported✦ Research metadata ✦
- PMID
- 42349272
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.amjoto.2026.104873.
- Journal
- American Journal of Otolaryngology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- U.S. adults from national survey data, stratified by race
- Intervention
- Analysis of hearing test recency using national survey data
- Comparator
- Comparison across racial groups
Primary outcomes
Recency of hearing test by demographic group; Trends in hearing test uptake over time