The Clinical Application of Apple AirPods Pro 2 vs. Hearing Aids

Hearing loss is becoming one of the most prevalent, yet undertreated health conditions in the United States. A staggering 5% of the world's population - or 430 million people - require rehabilitation to address their disabling hearing loss (including 34 million children), and it is estimated that by 2050, 700 million people - or 1 in every 10 people - will have disabling hearing loss (WHO, 2024). In the United States alone, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders predicts that approximately 15%, or 37.5 million, of American adults ages 18 years and over have some degree of hearing loss. The severity of hearing loss increases with age, affecting about one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 years, and nearly half of those older than 75 years (NIDCD, 2023). Although hearing loss is a major health issue, it is estimated that the utilization rate of hearing aids is about 15% (Nassiri et al., 2021). A major factor for this low utilization rate of hearing aids is the difficulty in accessibility of services for certain individuals, primarily those with financial constraints or those who live in rural areas with fewer audiologists (Carr \& Kihm, 2022). Furthermore, insurance typically provides little to no coverage for hearing aids despite it being the most efficacious treatment. According to Arnold et al. (2017), Medicaid only provides hearing aid coverage in 28 states with substantial coverage variability between individual states. One way this issue has been addressed is through the development of over-the-counter hearing aids (OTCs), which can be purchased online or at a retail center without a requirement for an audiologist. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of OTCs in 2022 for consumers 18 years or older with a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss (Stephenson, 2022). A retrospective survey study by Manchaiah et al. (2023) found that 84% of respondents expressed discomfort with OTCs and that the majority of respondents had concerns for safety, counseling, and audiological care. Although there has been some hesitation toward the use of OTCs from practicing audiologists, a study performed by Swanepoel et al. (2023) suggests that there is no significant difference in mostly objective, but also subjective, outcomes when comparing traditional hearing aids provided by hearing healthcare professionals and over-the-counter options. A multinational tech corporation, Apple, has developed a Hearing Test Feature (HTF), an over-the-counter air-conduction hearing assessment for use with the Apple AirPods Pro 2 devices using a compatible iPhone or iPad (iOS 18.1 or higher). With their update for the AirPods Pro 2 (AP2), an individual can self-administer a hearing evaluation. The device would then use their test results, or audiogram, to set the gain in the individual's AirPods for daily use as an OTC hearing aid, using the Hearing Aid Feature (HAF). This new feature has the potential to allow users to access hearing amplification without purchasing higher-cost devices or seeing an audiologist. Currently there is a critical gap in research that evaluates Apple's new Hearing Health Features. This project aims to research the validity of Apple's HTF and HAF by comparing results to a conventional audiologic evaluation and Phonak hearing aids.