Editor’s: Attached is a 2019 cost-benefit analysis of hearing aids. The study estimates that the global cost of unaddressed hearing loss is almost $800 billion/year. The study also found that “the total benefits, mainly coming from the direct benefits, were around a quarter of a million dollars and very large relative to the costs, with a benefit–cost ratio of around 30.” The study “results confirm the findings in the literature
that HAs [hearing aids] reduce the symptoms of dementia.”
From: A cost–benefit analysis of hearing aids, including the benefits of reducing the symptoms of dementia, Applied Economics, 51:28, 3091-3103, DOI:
10.1080/00036846.2018.1564123
ABSTRACT
We carried out a CBA of hearing aids (HAs) in which we estimated the direct utility benefits, and
included the indirect utility benefits working through a reduction in dementia symptoms. The
benefits methodology involved using QALYs as the outcome measure and then applying the
price of a QALY to convert the outcome measure into monetary terms. The price of a QALY was
derived from an age-specific VSL estimate. The effects of HAs on utility were estimated from
a fixed effects regression on a large national panel data set provided by NACC where we used
a negative proxy for the QoL. We also used a fixed effects regression for the estimate of the
indirect benefits involving HAs reducing dementia symptoms. We found that the total benefits,
mainly coming from the direct benefits, were extremely large relative to the costs, with benefit–
cost ratios over 30.
Read: A cost–benefit analysis of hearing aids, including the benefits of reducing the symptoms of dementia
