Why is research on hearing impairment a priority for the European Commission?
“Hearing impairment (HI) is a real heath problem in Europe. In Europe, 40 million individuals (over 10 % of its population) suffer from HI with 2 million profoundly deaf. In children, deafness impedes language acquisition and generates learning difficulties. In adults, if often leads to severe disruption of social links which very frequently results in depression. All together, in Europe, the financial cost of HI has been estimated at 3,500 Euros per year per patient and includes special education, speech therapy, hearing aids, and physician and specialists fees. In the range of 100 billion Euros, this is more than the combined economic cost of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal injury, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, this figure is likely to grow continuously in time due to noise pollution and ageing. Hearing loss is the third leading chronic disability following arthritis and hypertension. Therefore, Europe supports research to find new solutions to alleviate HI and th
