Hearing aid or PSAP?
HEARING AID OR PSAP
Hearing aids are for people who have hearing loss.
A PSAP or personal sound amplification product is for people without hearing loss who want to make sounds louder at times for activities like birdwatching or hunting.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates hearing aids. It doesn’t regulate PSAPS and PSAPs aren’t medical devices.
With some hearing aids now being sold over the counter, as amplification devices are, it’s important to know the difference to avoid buying the wrong one.
Source: Food and Drug Administration
EXTENT OF HEARING LOSS IN US.
1 in 8 people, about 30 million age 12 or older, have hearing loss in both ears.
Up to 37.5 million adults report some trouble hearing.
But about 80 percent who could benefit from hearing aids aren’t wearing them.
That’s why AARP and others worked for the legislation that lets some hearing aids be sold over the counter without prescription. They expect OTC hearing aids to cost much less than those prescribed and fitted by a health professional, reducing one barrier to their use.
Sources: AARP, National Institutes of Health
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Differences in the two
