Imagine being newly retired and excited to embrace hobbies. As the days go on, you begin to notice difficulty hearing some of your favorite sounds, from your grandchildren playing in the pool to the pitter-patter of rain on the rooftop.
This scenario can be an unfortunate reality for many people, with an estimated 15% of adults in the U.S. experiencing difficulty hearing. Many of these individuals with hearing loss are 60 years of age and older, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
But hearing loss also affects people who are younger. According to a Hearing Loss Association of America finding, one in five teenagers have hearing loss and “about 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears”.