Better hearing care needed in China

China's aging population combined with a growing middle class is expected to provide huge growth potential for global hearing aid makers, with sales of the devices already mushrooming during the past few years, according to a recent industry report.

China accounts for about one fifth of the world's population, and is also the largest hearing aid market. The nation is also experiencing a severe shortage of professionals who can provide quality hearing-care. There are only 10,000 hearing care professionals with various levels of training for a population of about 1.37 billion, the report said.

That professional-to-population ratio is extremely low compared to countries like the United States where it is one professional for 9,000 people and about 13,000 full time audiologists and 9,000 hearing aid dispensers for a population of 314 million people.

Twenty and a half million people were reported to have hearing disabilities in China, or 1.5 percent of the total population.

Most of the existing hearing care services in China are not enough for the 13.6 million older adults with hearing disabilities because of the lack of infrastructure and awareness about presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss.

Studies on the prevalence of presbycusis in China show that about 35-90 percent of older adults have some degree of hearing loss. The large range is probably due to the lack of age breakdowns and differences in audiometric criteria and testing protocols.

The country has 19 million live births every year and the prevalence of congenial hearing loss is about 0.1 to 0.3 percent. There are about 800,000 children with hearing loss who are under seven years and about 40,000 are born with hearing loss every year.

Hearing aids are generally more accessible in large cities. The range and quality of services, however, can vary greatly. Large State-level hospitals are generally better equipped and have better qualified hearing care professionals, the report said.