Evaluating Strategies to Reduce the Global Burden of Hearing Loss (2021-2022)

Over 1 billion people have some form of hearing loss, which has significant impacts on quality of life and general health. Reaching far beyond sensory impairment, hearing loss is damaging to childhood development and is strongly associated with dementia and other health conditions among older people.

Building on the work of the 2020-2021 team, this team collaborated with the Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss to develop and validate a decision modeling framework of hearing loss natural history, diagnosis and treatment across the lifespan, with the ultimate goal of envisioning a world where evidence on the economics of global (and country-specific) hearing healthcare policy is available to and understood by all stakeholders, and where evidence-based economic analyses are incorporated into strategies for reducing the burden of unaddressed hearing loss.

Key findings for 2021-2022 project team included:

  • Development of a framework to identify effectiveness of hearing loss interventions that improve detection and linkage to care
  • Analysis of variable follow-up rates on hearing screenings for newborns
  • Development of costing strategy to determine recurring and one-time costs for health states
  • International validation of decision model outputs against Global Burden of Disease data in India, Chile and Nigeria
  • Analysis of most frequently reported barriers to cochlear implant access and use

Learn more about this project team by viewing the team's video.

Timing

Summer 2021 – Summer 2022

Team Outputs

Validation of the Decision model of the Burden of Hearing loss Across the Lifespan (DeciBHAL) in Chile, India, and Nigeria. Ethan D. Borre, Austin Ayer, Carolina Der, Titus Ibekwe, Susan D. Emmett, Siddharth Dixit, Minahil Shahid, Bolajoko Olusanya. Suneela Garg, Mohini Johri, James E. Saunders, Debara L. Tucci, Blake S. Wilson, Osondu Ogbuoji, Gillian D. Sanders Schmidler. 2022. EClinicalMedicine.

Modeling Care Decisions for Hearing Loss Worldwide (2022 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Addressing the Global Burden of Hearing Loss (poster by Ethan D. Borre, Haley Cionfolo, Mohini Johri, Kamaria Kaalund, Elizabeth Kayzman, Megan Knauer, Brenna Morley, Minahil Shahid, Juliana Shank, Yajur Sriraman, Jacquelin Vicksman, Emily Xu, Danah Younis, Anna Zolotor, Osondu Ogbuoji and Gillian D. Sanders Schmidler, presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 13, 2022)

This Team in the News

Six Ph.D. Graduates Who Leveraged Bass Connections for Their Doctoral Training

Master's Student Honored for Her Outstanding Mentorship

Meet the Members of the 2021-2022 Bass Connections Student Advisory Council

Senior Spotlight: Reflections from the Class of 2023

See earlier related team, Evaluating Strategies to Reduce the Global Burden of Hearing Loss (2020-2021).

 

Image: Assistive Listening at Pharmacy, by Melinda Young Stuart, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Assistive Listening.

Team Leaders

  • Ethan Borre, Medicine–Population Health Sciences–Ph.D. Student
  • Osondu Ogbuoji, Duke Global Health Institute
  • Gillian Sanders Schmidler, School of Medicine-Population Health Sciences|Margolis Center for Health Policy

/graduate Team Members

  • Gloria Zhang, Medicine MD Fourth Year
  • Austin Ayer, Medicine MD Fourth Year

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Megan Knauer, Program II (BS)
  • Anna Zolotor, Global Health (MIN)
  • Danah Younis, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Emily Xu, Economics (BS)
  • Jacqueline Vicksman, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Yajur Sriraman, Biology (BS)
  • Juliana Shank, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Brenna Morley, Economics (AB)
  • Elizabeth Kayzman, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Mohini Johri, Economics (BS)
  • Haley Cionfolo, Biology (BS)
  • Isabella Caracta, Psychology (AB)

/yfaculty/staff Team Members

  • Howard Francis, School of Medicine-Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences
  • Susan Emmett, School of Medicine-Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences
  • Debara Tucci, School of Medicine-Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences
  • Mohamed Mustafa Diab, Duke Global Health Institute-Center for Health Policy
  • Blake Wilson, School of Medicine-Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences
  • Janet Prvu Bettger, School of Medicine-Orthopaedic Surgery

/zcommunity Team Members

  • Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss

Theme(s):