The total population of Americans with hearing problems topped 30 million in 2004, according to the Better Hearing Institute’s seventh update to its landmark MarketTrak hearing-aid adoption survey. Moreover, fewer than a quarter of those hard-of-hearing individuals are receiving help for their hearing problems. The Institute has been conducting the survey from a statistically valid sample of the U.S. population since 1990, following the Hearing Industries Association’s 1986 benchmark survey of the total hearing-impaired U.S. population. The survey confirms that with some 22 million Americans are going without the help they need, approximately 10 percent of Americans are neglecting to get needed help with their hearing. In a news release, the BHI claims that lost income due to hard-of-hearing U.S. workers failing to achieve their full earning potential amounts to more than $100 billion per year. According to the author of the survey, BHI Executive Director Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D, “People are still embarrassed to admit they have a hearing loss and get hearing aids. But the price of their vanity is lost earnings for the rest of their lives, a diminished ability to communicate effectively, family problems and a host of other troubles.” The survey also notes the high costs of hearing aids and lack of sufficient screening as factors contributing to the low adoption rates by hard-of-hearing consumers. A report on the survey will appear in the July issue of The Hearing Review.