Hearing Care Access Among Patients with Hearing Loss in an Urban, Safety-net Clinic

Saturday, October 17, 2026

10:24 AM - 10:30 AM PT

Location: 406A

Presenting Author(s)

AN

Armita Norouzi, BA

Medical Student
Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States

Co-Author(s)

KA

Kevin Avelar, BS

Medical Student
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, United States
EH

Emily Honzel, MD

Resident Physician in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States
Ana Marija Sola, MD

Resident Physician in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States
KJ

Kennedy Johnson, BS

Medical Student
ZSFG Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
San Francisco, California, United States
YC

Yew Song Cheng, BM BCh

Assistant Professor
Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States

Senior Author(s)

MD

Megan L. Durr, MD

Professor
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, United States

Disclosure(s):

Megan L. Durr, MD:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Introduction: Access to hearing care among low-income, diverse populations remains understudied despite the widespread impacts of hearing loss. We address this gap by examining patient-reported hearing care access in an urban, safety-net setting.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey (July 2025-January 2026) of publicly insured adults (≥18 years) with confirmed hearing loss at an urban, safety-net hospital. Participants reported experiences with hearing care diagnosis and treatment. Descriptive statistics summarized patient-reported barriers, and associations were assessed using Fisher’s exact tests with Cramér’s V. Significance was defined as p< 0.05. Analyses were conducted in R.

Results: Among 31 participants, the majority were female (55%) and 60 years of age or older (78%). The most represented race/ethnicity was Hispanic/Latino (n=11, 35%) and over half of participants reported a primary language other than English (n=17, 55%). The majority of participants endorsed a yearly income <$25,000 (n=23, 74%). 14 participants (45%) reported barriers to diagnosis and/or difficulties scheduling or attending hearing tests, with long wait times being the most frequently cited barrier (n = 10, 32%). 10 (33%) described difficulty understanding the hearing care process and 9 (30%) reported cost as a barrier to obtaining hearing aids. In exploratory analysis, current hearing aid use was more common among participants who reported insurance coverage (n=7, 47%) than among those who reported no or uncertain coverage (n=1, 7%) (p=0.035; Cramér’s V=0.45). Among participants who reported receiving no provider explanation of hearing aid benefits, none were current hearing aid users (0/13), compared with 8 of 17 (47%) among those who reported receiving an explanation (p=0.004; Cramér’s V=0.53).

Conclusions: Barriers to hearing care were common among publicly insured adults in a safety-net setting, and hearing aid use was limited. Exploratory analyses suggested associations between insurance coverage and provider communication with hearing aid use, highlighting the need for larger, powered studies in this population.