Hearing Loss and Annual Earnings Over a 20-Year Period: The HUNT Cohort Study.
Astrid Ytrehus Jørgensen, Bo Engdahl, Bernt Bratsberg and 3 others
PMID 39138599WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with hearing loss had slower annual earnings growth over the follow-up than adults with normal hearing.
The gap widened over time, and disabling loss showed the largest difference.
Key findings
01People with normal hearing had income growth of 453 EUR more per year than people with hearing loss before age 40, or 13.2% more per year.
02The annual earnings growth difference was larger for disabling hearing loss than for mild hearing loss, at 950 EUR and 312 EUR per year in the age and sex adjusted model.
03Adjusting for education reduced the annual difference for any hearing loss to 337 EUR, and the higher education group difference was 83 EUR, which the paper reports as not statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is an association study, not a treatment trial, so it cannot show that hearing loss caused lower earnings growth or that treating hearing loss would raise earnings. Only 230 participants had hearing loss at baseline, and the study did not know whether hearing loss was present from birth or developed later. Hearing was measured only at baseline, so some people in the normal hearing group may have developed hearing loss during follow-up. Income records included zero income years, but the study did not know the exact reason for those years. Education could be a cause of lower earnings, a consequence of hearing loss, or both, so adjusting for it may overcorrect or undercorrect the association. The sample came from one Norwegian county and did not include large cities, and participation may have been lower in some groups.
Declared interests
The only funding and conflict information supplied is a grant from the Research Council of Norway.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that hearing loss causes lower earnings or that workplace accommodations will increase income. The study observed existing earnings records and did not test treatment, and people with hearing loss were older, more often male, and had lower baseline income.