At the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, our research is aimed at better understanding the impact of hearing loss on public health, crafting and testing solutions, and working to advance medical, public health, and governmental understanding of these issues all around the world.
This work spans diverse fields and informs policies that improve hearing care and healthy aging.
Highlighting the substantial impact of hearing loss in society.
Exploring connections between hearing loss and the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Testing hearing care and delivery models that improve health care outcomes and expand access to care.
Understanding the direct and indirect economic implications of hearing loss for individuals and society
Cochlear Center researchers are working to understand the impact of hearing loss on public health, craft, and test solutions, and work to advance medical, public health, and governmental understanding of these issues all around the world.
The ACHIEVE study is a large-scale randomized controlled trial designed to determine if treating hearing loss in older adults could reduce the loss of thinking and memory abilities (cognitive decline) that can precede dementia. ACHIEVE found that in older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline, hearing intervention slowed down loss of thinking and memory abilities by 48% over 3 years. These main study findings were published in The Lancet.
HEARS tested a way to bridge the gap in who gets access to hearing care by training community health workers to connect older adults with low-cost hearing technology. The HEARS program works: the team found that participants’ hearing and communication improved significantly – all with a 2-hour program delivered entirely by community health workers using over-the-counter, low-cost hearing technology. Results of the randomized clinical trial were published in the Journal of American Medical Association.
