Assessing hearing health inequalities using routine health information systems
Assessing hearing health inequalities using routine health information systems
Hearing loss is a significant public health challenge, with prevalence estimates based on projected age demographics rather than actual public health needs. This study aimed to quantify hearing loss using real-world data from primary care and explore local patterns and trends from 2013 to 2022 in Cheshire and Merseyside counties of Northwest England. Annual hearing loss prevalence was measured using an ecological space-time analysis of 2.7 million primary care records from Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. We applied cluster and outlier analysis with geographically weighted regression to examine local deprivation effects. We detected spatial clusters of high prevalence of hearing loss in Cheshire and an increasing trend in hearing loss prevalence in Halton. Deprivation accounted for up to 35% of hearing loss variance in 2020. Monitoring spatial patterns of hearing loss is crucial for addressing health inequalities and guiding targeted prevention and intervention strategies.
Health policy, Hearing health, Inequalities, Public health, Spatial statistics
630-644
Tsimpida, Dialechti
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Piroddi, Roberta
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Daras, Konstantinos
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Melis, Gabriella
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Tsimpida, Dialechti
2fff4517-3c8e-445b-8646-7f645fa36b0a
Piroddi, Roberta
7fee30f0-3cdb-406f-b1ce-cfe7226f3fb9
Daras, Konstantinos
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Melis, Gabriella
fbb38442-7705-4494-8cb6-1d66e818151a
Tsimpida, Dialechti, Piroddi, Roberta, Daras, Konstantinos and Melis, Gabriella
(2025)
Assessing hearing health inequalities using routine health information systems.
Journal of Public Health Policy, 46 (3), .
(doi:10.1057/s41271-025-00584-8).
Abstract
Hearing loss is a significant public health challenge, with prevalence estimates based on projected age demographics rather than actual public health needs. This study aimed to quantify hearing loss using real-world data from primary care and explore local patterns and trends from 2013 to 2022 in Cheshire and Merseyside counties of Northwest England. Annual hearing loss prevalence was measured using an ecological space-time analysis of 2.7 million primary care records from Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. We applied cluster and outlier analysis with geographically weighted regression to examine local deprivation effects. We detected spatial clusters of high prevalence of hearing loss in Cheshire and an increasing trend in hearing loss prevalence in Halton. Deprivation accounted for up to 35% of hearing loss variance in 2020. Monitoring spatial patterns of hearing loss is crucial for addressing health inequalities and guiding targeted prevention and intervention strategies.
Text
s41271-025-00584-8
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 9 June 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 July 2025
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
Keywords:
Health policy, Hearing health, Inequalities, Public health, Spatial statistics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 503517
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503517
ISSN: 0197-5897
PURE UUID: c28a521c-b33e-4119-988c-ce3b79b28474
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Date deposited: 04 Aug 2025 16:52
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:41
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Contributors
Author:
Dialechti Tsimpida
Author:
Roberta Piroddi
Author:
Konstantinos Daras
Author:
Gabriella Melis
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