Current Estimate of Hearing Aid Utilization in the United States

Objective: To present key data from a private marketing report that characterizes US hearing aid (HA) utilization, HA candidate and user population sizes, and HA pricing.

Patients: HA candidates and users in the United States.

Interventions: Hearing amplification.

Main outcome measures: HA utilization, HA candidate and user population sizes, HA market size and value, and HA pricing.

Results: In 2015, an estimated 8.5 million HA users accounted for a total of 15.4 million individual HA devices in the United States. Approximately 81% of HA users owned bilateral devices. In 2015, approximately 87% of devices were purchased as replacements by current HA users, while the remaining 13% of devices were purchased by new HA users. HA utilization rates among the candidate population approximated 21% in 2015, which was stable over the 3-year study period. In 2015, there was a net increase of 696,060 individuals who met HA candidacy criteria but did not undergo treatment with HAs, adding to the backlog of 31.0 million untreated HA candidates who existed before that year. The HA market was valued at $6.0 billion in 2015, with an average retail selling price of $1798 per device ($3596 per pair). In the same year, the average manufacturer selling price was $495 per device ($990 per pair), or nearly 1 quarter of the retail price.

Conclusions: HAs are substantially under-utilized in the United States with an annually growing backlog of untreated HA candidates.