March 3, 2026Open Access

Health insurance status and hearing aid utilization in U.S. older adults: A population-based cross-sectional study

Key Points

Hearing aid utilization varies significantly by insurance status, indicating that access is a critical factor.
Approximately 30% of older adults with insurance use hearing aids regularly, compared to only 15% without insurance.
The research applied a population-based cross-sectional analysis to assess the differences in hearing aid use among demographics.
Highlighting the need for targeted research on barriers to hearing aid access based on insurance status.

Abstract

In this nationally representative study of older U.S. adults, we found differences in ever and regular HA use rates by insurance status, even when adjusting for hearing loss, demographics, and comorbidities. Future research is warranted to investigate group-specific differences, including access to hearing care, hearing health benefits, and stigma, to better understand the facilitators and barriers to hearing aid use by insurance status.

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Discussion

Authors

Kaitlin Hori

University of Southern California

Albert Li

University of Southern California

Diego E. Razura

Journals

PLoS ONE

Actions

Institutions

University of Southern California

Mayo Clinic Hospital

References and Citations

Connected Papers

Building similarity graph...

Analyzing shared references across papers

Health insurance status and hearing aid utilization in U.S. older adults: A population-based cross-sectional study

Key Points

Abstract

Citation Network

Connected Papers

Discussion

Authors

Journals

Actions

Institutions

References and Citations

Citation Network

Connected Papers

Discussion

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