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Objective: To examine the effectiveness of targeted surveillance for the identification of moderate-profound PCHI in babies who pass the newborn hearing screen in England and have risk factors. Design: Retrospective analysis. Study sample: 2 307 880 children born 01/04/06-30/09/09 in England. Results: Overall the prevalence for all PCHI in children with risk factors who pass newborn hearing screening is 1.49/1000. The risk factors with the highest prevalence are (1) Syndrome (other than Down's) associated with a hearing loss; (2) NICU with refer in both ears at OAE and pass in both ears at AABR; (3) Craniofacial anomaly; (4) Down's syndrome; (5) Congenital infection. Conclusion: Targeted surveillance for children who pass the screen and have the risk factors 1-5 listed above will be retained within the English NHSP; targeted surveillance for children who pass the screen and have other risk factors is not effective and has been discontinued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe the provision of hearing aid services in Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom (UK). A cross-sectional survey of adult hearing aid centres in Denmark, Finland and the UK was undertaken. Information requested included annual expenditure, staff levels, types of hearing aids provided, and patient characteristics. Data for the calendar year 2000 was requested in Denmark and Finland and for the financial year 2000/1 in the UK. Costs were converted into euros (€), at the following rates: 1€ = £0.62 = 7.45 Danish Krone = 5.95 Finnish Markka. The population covered by responding centres was equivalent to 80% in Denmark, 90% in Finland and 78% in the UK. Denmark spent the most per capita (€7.31), spent €670 per person fitted and provided the most aids (10.9 per thousand people). Finland spent €2.48 per capita, spent the most per person fitted (€924), but provided the fewest aids (2.7 per thousand people). The UK spent the least per capita (€1.76), spent €296 per person fitted and provided 6.0 aids per thousand people. The price of similar types of hearing aids differed across countries and was at least 10% lower for all aid types in the UK. Between countries, there were variations in the proportion of people who received bilateral (Denmark 68%, Finland 5%, UK 18%), in the ear (Denmark 43%, Finland 25%, UK 7%) and digital signal processing (Denmark 52%, Finland 17%, UK 1%) hearing aids. We conclude that there are major differences in hearing aid services provided in Denmark, Finland and the UK. These international differences arise from both differences in expenditure levels and different choices made about the number and types of aids provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusions: Prevalence of confirmed permanent childhood hearing impairment increases until the age of 9 years to a level higher than previously estimated. Relative to current yields of universal neonatal hearing screening in the United Kingdom, which are close to 1/1000 live births, 50-90% more children are diagnosed with permanent childhood hearing impairment by the age of 9 years. Paediatric audiology services must have the capacity to achieve early identification and confirmation of these additional cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1011-page book, Hearing in Adults, published in 1995, contains the fullest report of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council National Study of Hearing. It was designed to determine the prevalence and distribution in Great Britain of audiometrically measured hearing loss as a function of age, gender, occupation, and noise exposure. The study's size, quality, and breadth made it unique when it was done in the 1980s. These qualities remain, and its data are still the primary U.K. source for the prevalence of auditory problems. However, only 550 copies were printed, and the book is essentially unobtainable today. We describe here a fully searchable, open-access, digital (PDF) "reprinting" of Hearing in Adults, summarizing the study's design and the book's contents, together with a brief commentary in the light of subsequent developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the modernization program for hearing aid services in Great Britain. The program has introduced patient centered pathways and protocols, modern technology for selecting, analyzing and fitting hearing aids, and stressed an evaluative culture including formal outcome measures that inform rehabilitation or follow-up programs. The program is aimed at providing the best possible hearing health care and hearing aid service through the most cost effective model.

Background: Previous studies have reported national and regional Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates for the UK. Because of substantial variation in health within the UK, action to improve it requires comparable estimates of disease burden and risks at country and local levels. The slowdown in the rate of improvement in life expectancy requires further investigation. We use GBD 2016 data on mortality, causes of death, and disability to analyse the burden of disease in the countries of the UK and within local authorities in England by deprivation quintile., Methods: We extracted data from the GBD 2016 to estimate years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and attributable risks from 1990 to 2016 for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the UK, and 150 English Upper-Tier Local Authorities. We estimated the burden of disease by cause of death, condition, year, and sex. We analysed the association between burden of disease and socioeconomic deprivation using the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We present results for all 264 GBD causes of death combined and the leading 20 specific causes, and all 84 GBD risks or risk clusters combined and 17 specific risks or risk clusters., Findings: The leading causes of age-adjusted YLLs in all UK countries in 2016 were ischaemic heart disease, lung cancers, cerebrovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Age-standardised rates of YLLs for all causes varied by two times between local areas in England according to levels of socioeconomic deprivation (from 14 274 per 100 000 population [95% uncertainty interval 12 791-15 875] in Blackpool to 6888 [6145-7739] in Wokingham). Some Upper-Tier Local Authorities, particularly those in London, did better than expected for their level of deprivation. Allowing for differences in age structure, more deprived Upper-Tier Local Authorities had higher attributable YLLs for most major risk factors in the GBD. The population attributable fractions for all-cause YLLs for individual major risk factors varied across Upper-Tier Local Authorities. Life expectancy and YLLs have improved more slowly since 2010 in all UK countries compared with 1990-2010. In nine of 150 Upper-Tier Local Authorities, YLLs increased after 2010. For attributable YLLs, the rate of improvement slowed most substantially for cardiovascular disease and breast, colorectal, and lung cancers, and showed little change for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Morbidity makes an increasing contribution to overall burden in the UK compared with mortality. The age-standardised UK DALY rate for low back and neck pain (1795 [1258-2356]) was higher than for ischaemic heart disease (1200 [1155-1246]) or lung cancer (660 [642-679]). The leading causes of ill health (measured through YLDs) in the UK in 2016 were low back and neck pain, skin and subcutaneous diseases, migraine, depressive disorders, and sense organ disease. Age-standardised YLD rates varied much less than equivalent YLL rates across the UK, which reflects the relative scarcity of local data on causes of ill health., Interpretation: These estimates at local, regional, and national level will allow policy makers to match resources and priorities to levels of burden and risk factors. Improvement in YLLs and life expectancy slowed notably after 2010, particularly in cardiovascular disease and cancer, and targeted actions are needed if the rate of improvement is to recover. A targeted policy response is also required to address the increasing proportion of burden due to morbidity, such as musculoskeletal problems and depression. Improving the quality and completeness of available data on these causes is an essential component of this response., Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Public Health England., (Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Utility scores were estimated for 609 hearing-impaired adults who completed EQ-5D, Health Utilities Index Mark III (HUI3) and SF-6D survey instruments both before and after being provided with a hearing aid. Pre-intervention, the mean utility scores for EQ-5D (0.80) and SF-6D (0.78) were significantly higher than the mean HUI3 utility score (0.58). Post-intervention, the mean improvement in the HUI3 (0.06 change) was significantly higher than the mean improvement according to the EQ-5D (0.01 change) or SF-6D (0.01 change). The estimated cost effectiveness of hearing-aid provision is therefore likely to be dependent on which instrument is used to measure utility.