70 years
The longer you use your hearing aids the better you'll like them. But getting used to your new devices takes patience. Getting the full benefits of your hearing aids may take about one year. A North American study involving 92 individuals with an average age of 69 years examined the expectations of new hearing aid wearers and their subsequent actual experiences.  Some people may keep the same pair of hearing aids for 10 to 12 years, particularly if their hearing loss remains stable over time and if they do a great job with maintenance, but the average life expectancy is about five years. Use this 30 day period to test the hearing aids in the environments that are typical of your lifestyle-not only at home, but also at your friends' and relatives' homes, your favorite restaurant, shopping center, grocery store, or place of worship. Of the 26.7 million people over age 50 with a hearing impairment, only one in seven, a meager 14 percent, use a hearing aid, said Dr. Frank Lin, assistant professor of otolaryngology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. “If you think you have a hearing loss, you probably do,” he said.  The average age of first-time hearing aid wearers is close to 70 years of age, despite the fact that the majority (65 percent) of people with hearing loss are below the age of 65; and nearly half of all people with hearing loss are below the age of 55. People with a moderate to profound hearing loss, who did not use hearing aids, on average, experienced household incomes $5000-$6000 less than their counterparts who did use hearing aids. This is despite the fact that the higher hearing loss non-wearer groups tended to be employed slightly more often. Expect the hearing aids to cost more than you think they should. There are three categories of hearing aid technology-analog, digitally programmable, and digital. Analog technology has been around for many years. Use this 30 day period to test the hearing aids in the environments that are typical of your lifestyle-not only at home, but also at your friends' and relatives' homes, your favorite restaurant, shopping center, grocery store, or place of worship. Accidents can and do happen. When it comes to hearing aids, seven years may not appear to be a very long time, but the device is considered ANCIENT by that time. The average person is expected to replace a hearing aid every 3-5 years. There are several reasons for this: 1  Some people do not like to have a hearing aid without a warranty. 2  Paying to repair older technology is a poor investment (typically being more expensive with age). Our concept of age depends on the object of our attention. For example, the average ant lives to be about 45-60 days. The average fly lives about 15-30 days. The average albatross lives between 42-50 years. Electronics must be viewed differently however. Most tend to delay treatment until they cannot communicate even in the best of listening situations. On average, hearing aid users wait over 10 years after their initial diagnosis to be fit with their first set of hearing aids (Davis, Smith, Ferguson, Stephens, & Gianopoulos, 2007). Our population is aging. According to the Administration on Aging (2011, para. Approximately one third of Americans between ages 65 and 74 and nearly half of those over age 75 have hearing loss (NIDCD, 2010). Hearing loss is the third most prevalent chronic health condition facing older adults (Collins, 1997). “High quality hearing aid fittings by audiologists involve verifications by various electronic measures and validation.”. Perhaps a larger obstacle to the wholehearted adoption of Bluetooth technology in hearing aids, though, is the patients themselves: the average age of a hearing aid user is 71.  So, plan for your instruments to last about 5 years, on average…knowing it could be a little bit longer or a little bit shorter, but that 5 years will be about time to think about looking for your next set of hearing aids. Until next time, Dr. Kristin. You should expect your hearing aids to last about five years…some will last longer, some might last a little less. Hearing aid technology changes very rapidly, which is similar to computer technology. Many times, the new developments in technology will benefit you as the wearer greatly.
http://www.hear-it.org/Hearing-aids-take-time-getting-used-to http://www.audiologyonline.com/articles/hearing-aids-reasonable-expectations-for-1176 http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/why-wont-they-get-hearing-aids/ http://www.betterhearing.org/sites/default/files/quality_of_life.pdf http://www.audiologyonline.com/articles/hearing-aids-reasonable-expectations-for-1176 http://www.swedish.org/blog/2013/03/hearing-aid-life-expectancy-and-power http://www.asha.org/Aud/Articles/Untreated-Hearing-Loss-in-Adults/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/better-hearing-through-bluetooth/ http://hearingrevolution.com/hearing-aid-life-expectancy/
average age hearing aid