If the NHS recommended it, would people test their own hearing at home and use self-fitting hearing aids?
found that nine in every ten said yes, they鈥檇 be willing to test their own hearing. Most also said they鈥檇 try a hearing aid sent by the 鈥� either ready programmed or requiring them to set it up themselves.
Currently, the NHS route involves GPs referring patients for a face-to-face appointment with an audiologist in an NHS hospital, community setting, or increasingly on the high street. But waiting times are long, and services are struggling to meet demand despite staff working hard to help.
Hearing loss is the . , and this increases with age: 40% of people over 40, 50% over 50, and 60% over 60. With an ageing population, these numbers will only grow.
Waiting times reveal how well a health system works. They offer an opportunity to trigger changes that make health services more responsive and put patients first.
Ministers are encouraging people to monitor their own health and want the NHS to use more digital technology and provide care closer to home.
The focuses on three big shifts in healthcare: hospital to home, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. As part of the plan, the NHS is examining wearable and other monitoring technologies, including direct-to-consumer hearing aids, .
The survey findings suggest that many adults would welcome this approach.
Various apps and online tests already allow people to assess their hearing at home using smartphones or tablets with regular earphones. However, , and researchers haven鈥檛 properly evaluated all of them.
There are also direct-to-consumer hearing aids, sometimes called . High-quality large-scale studies are needed to assess how well they work.
Beyond relieving pressure on existing NHS services, home testing could offer patients greater choice, more convenience, immediate results without waiting for appointments, and reduce the medical stigma around hearing loss. It might encourage younger people to seek help when their hearing loss is less severe.
However, the survey revealed genuine concerns that need addressing. People worry about trusting test results and feeling confident they鈥檝e done the testing properly without face-to-face support.
While these self-administered at-home digital solutions work for many people, they won鈥檛 suit everyone. Relying solely on digital solutions could unintentionally increase inequality.
People鈥檚 ability to use digital solutions is . This might explain why the survey found that older adults and those who didn鈥檛 pursue education after secondary school were less willing to test their hearing at home.
Some people may be willing to try a self-administered at-home solution but need to switch to the traditional face-to-face method if they run into problems. Either way, solutions are needed for the lack of professional support and oversight that comes with self-administered home testing.
Some experts worry that bypassing a hearing professional might create risks for people with ear disease requiring medical intervention. Another common issue is impacted earwax, which can affect hearing or prevent hearing aids from working properly. However, it鈥檚 unclear what proportion of adults seeking help for hearing difficulty actually have earwax that needs removing.
Before rolling these findings out into practice, researchers need to check whether the survey results translate into reality and whether the benefits and outcomes match what is currently in place.
In the meantime, the survey suggests that offering a range of options could relieve some pressure on the NHS and make it more sustainable. This would free audiologists to spend their valuable time and resources with the people who need them most.
, Ewing Professor of Audiology,
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .