Hearing loss prevalence and years lived with disability, 1990–2019: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Authors: Lydia M Haile, Kaloyan Kamenov, Paul Svitil Briant, Aislyn U Orji, Jaimie D Steinmetz, Amir Abdoli, Mohammad Abdollahi, Eman Abu-Gharbieh, Ashkan Afshin, Haroon Ahmed, Tarik Ahmed Rashid, Yonas Akalu, Fares Alahdab, Fahad Mashhour Alanezi, Turki M Alanzi, Hanadi Al Hamad, Liaqat Ali, Vahid Alipour, Rajaa M Al-Raddadi, Hubert Amu, Jalal Arabloo, Morteza Arab-Zozani, Judie Arulappan, Charlie Ashbaugh, Desta Debalkie Atnafu, Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar, Atif Amin Baig, Palash Chandra Banik, Till Winfried Bärnighausen, Amadou Barrow, Rose G Bender, Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula, Nikha Bhardwaj, Pankaj Bhardwaj, Sadia Bibi, Ali Bijani, Katrin Burkart, Christopher R Cederroth, Jaykaran Charan, Sonali Gajanan Choudhari, Dinh-Toi Chu, Rosa A S Couto, Amare Belachew Dagnew, Baye Dagnew, Saad M A Dahlawi, Xiaochen Dai, Lalit Dandona, Rakhi Dandona, Assefa Desalew, Deepak Dhamnetiya, Mandira Lamichhane Dhimal, Meghnath Dhimal, Kerrie E Doyle, Bruce B Duncan, Michael Ekholuenetale, Irina Filip, Florian Fischer, Richard Charles Franklin, Abhay Motiramji Gaidhane, Shilpa Gaidhane, Silvano Gallus, Farhad Ghamari, Ahmad Ghashghaee, Ghozali Ghozali, Syed Amir Gilani, Ionela-Roxana Glavan, Mahaveer Golechha, Bárbara Niegia Garcia Goulart, Veer Bala Gupta, Vivek Kumar Gupta, Samer Hamidi, Billy Randall Hammond, Simon I Hay, Khezar Hayat, Golnaz Heidari, Howard J Hoffman, Kathleen Pillsbury Hopf, Mehdi Hosseinzadeh, Mowafa Househ, Rabia Hussain, Bing-Fang Hwang, Ivo Iavicoli, Segun Emmanuel Ibitoye, Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani, Sheikh Mohammed Shariful Islam, Masao Iwagami, Louis Jacob, Sathish Kumar Jayapal, Ravi Prakash Jha, Jost B Jonas, Rohollah Kalhor, Nawzad Kameran Al-Salihi, Himal Kandel, Ayele Semachew Kasa, Gbenga A Kayode, Rovshan Khalilov, Ejaz Ahmad Khan, Mahalaqua Nazli Khatib, Soewarta Kosen, Ai Koyanagi, G Anil Kumar, Iván Landires, Savita Lasrado, Stephen S Lim, Xuefeng Liu, Stany W Lobo, Alessandra Lugo, Alaa Makki, Walter Mendoza, Amanual Getnet Mersha, Kebadnew Mulatu Mihretie, Ted R Miller, Sanjeev Misra, Teroj Abdulrahman Mohamed, Mokhtar Mohammadi, Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani, Arif Mohammed, Ali H Mokdad, Mohammad Ali Moni, Sandhya Neupane Kandel, Huong Lan Thi Nguyen, Molly R Nixon, Jean Jacques Noubiap, Virginia Nuñez-Samudio, Bogdan Oancea, Victor Maduabuchi Oguoma, Andrew T Olagunju, Bolajoko Olubukunola Olusanya, Jacob Olusegun Olusanya, Hans Orru, Mayowa O Owolabi, Jagadish Rao Padubidri, Keyvan Pakshir, Shahina Pardhan, Fatemeh Pashazadeh Kan, Maja Pasovic, Shrikant Pawar, Hai Quang Pham, Marina Pinheiro, Akram Pourshams, Navid Rabiee, Mohammad Rabiee, Amir Radfar, Fakher Rahim, Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar, Mohammad Hifz Ur Rahman, Mosiur Rahman, Amir Masoud Rahmani, Juwel Rana, Chythra R Rao, Sowmya J Rao, Vahid Rashedi, David Laith Rawaf, Salman Rawaf, Andre M N Renzaho, Aziz Rezapour, Rezaul Karim Ripon, Voilet Rodrigues, Neeti Rustagi, Umar Saeed, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Abdallah M Samy, Milena M Santric-Milicevic, Brijesh Sathian, Maheswar Satpathy, Monika Sawhney, Winfried Schlee, Maria Inês Schmidt, Allen Seylani, Masood Ali Shaikh, Mohammed Shannawaz, Wondimeneh Shibabaw Shiferaw, Soraya Siabani, Anjali Singal, Jasvinder A Singh, Jitendra Kumar Singh, Deepika Singhal, Valentin Yurievich Skryabin, Anna Aleksandrovna Skryabina, Houman Sotoudeh, Emma Elizabeth Spurlock, Biruk Wogayehu Taddele, Animut Tagele Tamiru, Md Ismail Tareque, Rekha Thapar, Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Bach Xuan Tran, Saif Ullah, Sahel Valadan Tahbaz, Francesco S Violante, Vasily Vlassov, Bay Vo, Avina Vongpradith, Giang Thu Vu, Jingkai Wei, Ali Yadollahpour, Seyed Hossein Yahyazadeh Jabbari, Yigizie Yeshaw, Vahit Yigit, Birhanu Wubale Yirdaw, Naohiro Yonemoto, Chuanhua Yu, Ismaeel Yunusa, Mohammad Zamani, Mikhail Sergeevich Zastrozhin, Anasthasia Zastrozhina, Zhi-Jiang Zhang, Jeff T Zhao, Christopher J L Murray, Adrian C Davis, Theo Vos, Shelly Chadha
Journal: The Lancet (2021)

BackgroundHearing loss affects access to spoken language, which can affect cognition and development, and can negatively affect social wellbeing. We present updated estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study on the prevalence of hearing loss in 2019, as well as the condition's associated disability.MethodsWe did systematic reviews of population-representative surveys on hearing loss prevalence from 1990 to 2019. We fitted nested meta-regression models for severity-specific prevalence, accounting for hearing aid coverage, cause, and the presence of tinnitus. We also forecasted the prevalence of hearing loss until 2050.FindingsAn estimated 1·57 billion (95% uncertainty interval 1·51–1·64) people globally had hearing loss in 2019, accounting for one in five people (20·3% [19·5–21·1]). Of these, 403·3 million (357·3–449·5) people had hearing loss that was moderate or higher in severity after adjusting for hearing aid use, and 430·4 million (381·7–479·6) without adjustment. The largest number of people with moderate-to-complete hearing loss resided in the Western Pacific region (127·1 million people [112·3–142·6]). Of all people with a hearing impairment, 62·1% (60·2–63·9) were older than 50 years. The Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index explained 65·8% of the variation in national age-standardised rates of years lived with disability, because countries with a low HAQ Index had higher rates of years lived with disability. By 2050, a projected 2·45 billion (2·35–2·56) people will have hearing loss, a 56·1% (47·3–65·2) increase from 2019, despite stable age-standardised prevalence.InterpretationAs populations age, the number of people with hearing loss will increase. Interventions such as childhood screening, hearing aids, effective management of otitis media and meningitis, and cochlear implants have the potential to ameliorate this burden. Because the burden of moderate-to-complete hearing loss is concentrated in countries with low health-care quality and access, stronger health-care provision mechanisms are needed to reduce the burden of unaddressed hearing loss in these settings.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO.