We've all been told that hearing loss affects our relationships and our mental health. Studies show that it also affects our wallets.
An American study "The societal costs of severe to profound hearing loss in the US", found that the societal cost of hearing impairment totals an average of US$300,000 over the lifetime of a hearing-impaired person.
The researchers estimated that 67 per cent, or $200,000 per individual, of these costs are due to lost work productivity.
The Better Hearing Institute in the U.S. made a similar estimate of the societal costs. BHI estimated the annual cost of untreated hearing loss to be US$56 billion in the United States and 92 billion euro in the EU, mainly due to lost productivity. According to the study, the estimated societal costs of not treating hearing loss in Europe in the years 2001 to 2005 amounted to a staggering 400 billion euro.
Compared to those costs, it is relatively inexpensive to treat hearing loss. The best technology available today costs around 3% of what you can expect to lose if you leave hearing loss untreated. Furthermore, the earlier you treat the hearing loss, the less likely that you are to suffer any financial loss from the condition.
Kind of puts the costs in perspective, huh?
