Only 41% of people with hearing problems have hearing aids, which causes them significant daily worries.
What if one of your good resolutions was to take care of your hearing? Today, more than 6 million French people are hard of hearing, but only 41% of them have hearing aids. However, according to the latest Eurotrack 2018 study, conducted with several hearing stakeholders including signia65% of people with hearing aids consider that their hearing aids have improved their ability to participate in group activities.
They also estimate at 65% that they would have done better to get fitted sooner, in particular so as not to miss any moment of their social life and to be more positive on a daily basis. 60% have more self-confidence, and 59% feel more independent thanks to their hearing aids.
Depression, dementia and suicidal thoughts
Failure to take care of impaired hearing can have serious consequences, such as difficulties in understanding, isolation, risks of dementia and depression. Deaf people are three times more numerous in a state of mental suffering than the rest of the population. They therefore make three times more suicide attempts than people with no hearing problem, and even when they do not take the action, they are five times more likely to admit to having had suicidal thoughts over the past twelve months.
These acts of self-aggression occur particularly in the context of suffering at work. The deaf and hard of hearing are 34% to say they are in a state of psychological distress against 5.4% of the general population. They are also 3.5% to have attempted suicide for professional reasons, against 0.6% of their colleagues.
10 million people affected
In addition, hearing aids, now very discreet, provide better safety on a daily basis. Two-thirds of people with hearing aids feel more confident in the street when they wear their hearing aids, because they can better perceive the noises of the city and can thus anticipate possible dangers.
In France, 182,000 people define themselves as having complete deafness (0.3% of the total population), and more than 7 million people admit to having at least one hearing loss, i.e. 11.2% of the population. Around 11.5% of people admit having difficulty hearing a conversation with several people. By taking the angle of auditory functional limitations, we can expand to 10 million people concerned.
Supported
Yet today, only 120 euros are supported by the French compulsory system while a hearing aid costs on average 1500 euros, or 3000 euros for both ears. Since January 1, 2019, policyholders have been able to benefit from increasingly better reimbursed baskets of offers, until full reimbursement by 2021 provided for by Emmanuel Macron’s health program.
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