AICE advocates at the Spanish Parliament for Ser Oído’ (Be Heard) for better access to cochlear implants for older people with profound hearing loss

The ‘Being Heard’ initiative, promoted by the Federation AICE (Spanish Federation of Cochlear Implant Associations), is committed to a better future for older people with profound hearing loss. The platform, which was presented on 1 October at the Spanish Congress of Deputies with almost 200 attendees, including more than 100 cochlear implant recipients and their families, seeks to raise awareness of the need to build a more inclusive, accessible and sustainable future for people with profound hearing loss, as well as to improve access to cochlear implantation for the elderly population.

The event included a speech by the head of hearing at the WHO, Dr. Shelly Chadha, and a round table moderated by journalist Ana Blanco, with the participation of Dr. Serafín Sánchez, vice-president of SEORL (Spanish Society of Otorhinolaryngology), Dr. Carlos Cenjor, otorhinolaryngologist and president of the GAES-Amplifon scientific committee, and Inmaculada Soto, president of the Federation AICE. The event was attended by more than 100 cochlear implant users from different parts of Spain, many representatives of the Congress and Senate from all political parties, who have committed themselves to pass on our proposals and agree on how to achieve them, as well as otolaryngologists, audiologists, nurses and speech therapists.

The event celebrated on the World Day of Older Persons was covered by numerous media (written and digital press, radio and television), and has had a great impact on social networks.

The challenges of ‘Being Heard’.

The Federation AICE’s initiative, with the collaboration of GAES-Amplifon, seeks to counteract these factors that hinder access to cochlear implants for the elderly. One of its objectives is to raise awareness among both health professionals and society to combat the stigma associated with hearing loss and its denial. In the same vein, it aims to promote early detection and treatment with sustainable funding to ensure more equitable access for all patients.

Already 79 organisations, including other big Spanish patient associations, professionals and medical and scientific societies, have signed up to the ‘Being Heard’ manifesto. The platform also has broad popular support, with more than 2,500 signatories. Please join their claim https://www.seroido.org/

CIICA AT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF AUDIOLOGY, PARIS, SEPTEMBER 2024

Chair of CIICA, Leo De Raeve, opens the session on the latest version of the  Living Guidelines! Delegates heard about the updates and the changes made to CI services as  a result of the new guidelines.  You can see the new guidelines here Launch of Living Guidelines Version 3 – CIICA (ciicanet.org)… and CIICA summary here CIICA’s summary of The Living Guidelines for Adult CI – CIICA (ciicanet.org)
 

Leo de Raeve and De Wet Swanepoel took up the challenges from an interested audience.

2024 Update of Lancet Commission on dementia strengthens case for addressing hearing loss

The 2024 update of the Lancet Commission on dementia, published on the 31^st of July, has provided further support that addressing hearing loss in midlife can decrease the risk of dementia. This provides important additional support of the importance of addressing hearing loss early to improve cognitive health.

The report has completed “a new meta-analyses of the risk of hearing loss and depression for future dementia and reviewed and used the most recent literature on worldwide risk and prevalences of all risk factors to calculate new population attributable fractions for all risks.”

Reworking International data and adding two new modifiable risks they produced a new analysis of the potentially modifiable risks for dementia in mid life in which hearing loss is now 7%.

The also concluded on the basis of the new data and analysis that “The evidence that treating hearing loss decreases the risk of dementia is now stronger than when our previous Commission report was published. Use of hearing aids appears to be particularly effective in people with hearing loss and additional risk factors for dementia.”

Based on significant additional evidence the authors concluded that “The observational evidence of the benefits of hearing aids for dementia risk is increasing. Even if only the studies with long follow-up are considered, to reduce the chance of reverse causality, the evidence on hearing aids reducing dementia risk is consistent and supportive. Implementing the use of hearing aids, if effective in preventing dementia, would likely be cost saving.”

The full report can be accessed at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01296-0/fulltext

CIICA briefing on Why Hearing Matters for Health Ageing can be accessed here https://ciicanet.org/resources/ciica-and-eurociu-launch-new-resource-why-hearing-well-matters-for-healthy-ageing/