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Noisy world turns a deaf ear to a problem
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PROFESSOR Liu, 66, a renowned scholar of journalism at Fudan University, frequently asks his students to “speak up” in class, but that’s not because they are timid or there is too much campus noise outside the classroom window.
Rather, Liu suspects he is the problem.
“People of my age are naturally prone to poorer hearing,” he said sadly.
So why doesn’t he just get a hearing aid and correct the problem?
“They are a waste of money and may not really help,” he said.
That’s how a lot of people with poor hearing react. They don’t want to admit they have a serious problem. And those who do get hearing aids often complain that they also amplify noise and are unpleasant to use.
National Ear Care Day, which fell on last Thursday, was initiated 17 years ago to raise public awareness about hearing problems. But it’s still an uphill battle.
It is estimated that 150 million Chinese people suffer some degree of hearing impairment, but only 5 percent of the 27.8 million registered with hearing disabilities use hearing aids.
“People don’t pay enough attention to hearing problems due to lack of knowledge,” said Jin Kai, a sales manager at Tianlaizhiyin, which translates as “sound from heaven.” It’s a local retailer selling hearing aids.
“It usually takes a long time for people to make the decision to buy one,” Jin said.
According to one world survey, it takes people an average of seven years after first detecting hearing problems to purchase a product designed to help them. In China, that gap is even longer.
Children who have hearing problems usually receive faster, better treatment compared with adults. Newborn babies are required to be screened for congenital hearing loss in Shanghai, ensuring early intervention. For adults, there are no compulsory checks.
“When people find themselves unable to hear well, it is usually at a late stage,” Jin said. “Worse, older people either underestimate the problem or their caregivers don’t pay enough attention.”
The World Health Organization estimates that one in three people 65 years or older is likely to suffer hearing problems. Aging is one of the three major causes of hearing impairment. The other two are excess noise and ototoxicity, or the property of being toxic to the cochlea or auditory nerve, for example, the side effect of a drug.
Helen Keller, the renowned American writer who was both blind and deaf, once said, “Blindness separates people from things, but deafness separates people from people.”
For Swiss-based Sonova Group, a major provider of hearing care products, the situation in China presents a marketing opportunity.
Albert Lim, vice president of the Asia-Pacific for Sonova, said in a recent interview that the company attaches great importance to the Chinese market.
“We are introducing the latest technology, and we are customizing products to meet the demand,” Lim said.
The company plans to set up an Asia-Pacific training center in China that will focus on strengthening the technical skills of professionals to raise service quality for end users.
Last year, Sonova established an innovation center in Shanghai. One milestone for the company is the invention of a system especially adapted for Mandarin speakers.
“We are confident that more people will come forward to address their hearing needs with the chasing after higher-quality life,” Lim said. “We see seniors busy with traveling around nowadays, and they engage themselves in singing and dancing activities in public squares — all these need good hearing.”
Current production of hearing aids globally meets less than 10 percent of the need, based on the estimate that about 15 percent of the adult population suffers some degree of hearing loss, and over 630 million people across the world are affected by hearing loss.
That makes Sonova Group confident about its future. In the last five years, the company has delivered about 10 percent annual sales growth in local currencies.
Dai Ruibang, a hearing professional of 10 years’ experience, now works for Sonova as a trainer. He said China urgently needs better services aimed at convincing people that hearing aids really help.
“Hearing professionals can help clients find the best devices on the market and then adapt them to individual environments and lifestyles,” Dai said.
For example, if someone likes to spend a lot of time watching television, a hearing aid can be adapted for that situation. Or if a senior citizen is living alone and keeps in contact with friends and relatives by phone, then a hearing aid can be adapted to optimum operation with phones.
“The most common function of a hearing aid is to differentiate between quiet and noisy environments, but even then, at least three months are needed to tune a hearing aid to best effect,” Dai said.
Going into a pharmaceutical shop and picking up a hearing aid off the shelf, without professional assistance, is likely to make the experience of wearing a hearing aid unsatisfactory.
“Many people complain about the poor quality of hearing aids,” Dai said. “That’s because they don’t get the right advice and find the right product.”
China suffers from a shortage of hearing professionals, Dai said.
“The speed of training hasn’t caught up with what the market needs,” he said.
There are fewer than 10,000 fully qualified professionals at present, while 20,000 may be needed.
Only four institutions now offer comprehensive education for hearing technicians: Capital Medical University, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University and Wenzhou Medical University.
The price of hearing aids varies by brand and functions. The fanciest ones can cost up to tens of thousands of yuan, according to retail prices in local shops.
“People will need these services, given this increasingly noisy world and the trend toward everyone wearing earphone,” Dai said.
The hearing aid industry needs to take a cue from the optometry realm and make hearing aids as stylish to wear as eyeglasses, he added.
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