The U.S.

The SoundCheck project estimates the number (prevalence) and percentage of people (prevalence rate) with bilateral hearing loss in the U.S. at the national, state, and county level.

Previously, estimates of the prevalence of hearing loss were not available at the state and county level. To generate state and county prevalence estimates, we used a statistical modeling approach called small area estimation to predict the variation in prevalence of hearing loss in different geographic areas using state and county level data for different indicators of hearing loss which are available at the state and county level, including self-reported difficulty hearing as reported the American Community Survey and diagnosed hearing loss from Medicare Fee For Service claims and Medicare Advantage encounters.