What is it about?
People with intellectual disabilities are 5–10 times more likely to have hearing loss than the general population, yet it often goes unnoticed and untreated. The German HörGeist study provided a repeated outreach program of hearing screening, diagnosis, and treatment for 1,053 people aged 1–90 years directly in their everyday environments, including nurseries, schools, workplaces, and residential facilities. Hearing loss was found in 44% of participants, and 70% of these cases had not been diagnosed before. More than one in four participants received a treatment recommendation, but only 37% followed it; among those prescribed hearing aids, only 30% received them. The study shows that outreach hearing care can successfully detect previously overlooked hearing loss, while access to treatment remains a major challenge.
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Why is it important?
Hearing loss can further limit communication, learning, independence, and social participation. Yet in people with intellectual disabilities, it may be mistaken for part of the disability itself, even by families or caregivers. Conventional clinic-based care often fails to reach this population because attending appointments may require caregivers, special transport, and considerable organizational effort. Our study confirmed that simply inviting people to a clinic is not enough: almost no one attended, and no one ultimately took part.
Perspectives
People with intellectual disabilities have the same right to appropriate hearing care as everyone else. We therefore aim to establish regularly repeated outreach programs that provide hearing screening, diagnosis, and treatment directly in their everyday environments. At the same time, we want to raise awareness of this neglected health problem among healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the wider public. The next challenge is to improve follow-up and rehabilitation through greater awareness and structured hearing and communication training involving both people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Ultimately, such programs should improve communication, social participation, independence, and quality of life.
Katrin Neumann
Department of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, University Hospital Münster, University of Münster, Germany
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Overlooked and undertreated: Hearing loss among individuals with intellectual disabilities – A German cohort study, PLOS Global Public Health, August 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0006872.
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