World Hearing Day Is March 3: Spread the Word

By Jamie Bogle, AuD, PhD

Chair, Public Awareness Committee

Hearing loss impacts over 466 million people worldwide with the cost of unaddressed hearing loss ranging from $750–790 billion.¹ In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified hearing loss as a focus for education, and developed an annual initiative to highlight this important health care concern.

On March 3, 2019, we celebrate World Hearing Day, a day to spread the word about the importance of hearing health and management. This year’s theme is “Check your hearing!” which emphasizes the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss. As audiologists, we play an important part in this initiative by creating awareness about the importance of identification and management of hearing loss as well as the highlighting the role of the audiologist on the hearing health-care team. Teaming up with the WHO on World Hearing Day gives us a unique platform to highlight this important message to a worldwide audience.

Spreading the word about World Hearing Day is easy and helps to support this important initiative. To get you started, the Academy has created visual graphics for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Download and post these graphics to your social media accounts and show your support.

Not into social media? There are other ways to get the word out to your local community. Consider downloading our World Hearing Day press release template—modify the template to highlight your contributions to this initiative and show your community the importance of audiological management for hearing loss.

Not into individualized press? Join the anonymous Internet community! We invite you to join us in contributing and representing audiology on the World Hearing Day Wiki page. This initiative aims to provide information about hearing and hearing loss available in one easy-to-find location and in an easy-to-understand format. Content is needed related to hearing loss, hearing health services, diagnostics, hearing loss prevention and treatment options to better inform the worldwide community interested in hearing loss. Contributions are accepted through March 31, 2019 through #Wiki4WorldHearingDay2019.

Visit the Academy’s World Hearing Day page to see the information and resources available. Spreading the word is easy with these tools—take a look at the options available and share on your social media accounts to help spread the word about World Hearing Day and the importance of hearing health care!

1. 1. World Health Organization (WHO). 2017. Global costs of unaddressed hearing loss and cost-effectiveness of interventions.