Annual Meeting of the Population Hearing Health Care (PopHHC) Network

: Hearing loss is a highly prevalent but under-addressed public health problem. When left untreated, hearing loss can contribute to underemployment, social isolation, depression, cognitive decline, and early mortality. It is particularly problematic in communities facing disproportionate barriers to health care and so it is important to study how the social and environmental conditions shape hearing health, particularly in areas with constrained resources. Population approaches to research using new methodological and collaborative methods (e.g., participatory research using co-production research methods involving community stakeholders) offer insights that small sample sized experimentally based approaches can miss. Therefore, the Population Hearing Health Care (PopHHC) network was created to fill this void. It consists of researchers, clinicians, students, and leading advocates in public health and hearing health care, representing institutions across the US and internationally. It is intentionally comprised of people who live with and without hearing loss and promotes community-focused and individual-level population data using technological advances and data-sharing infrastructures. PopHHC aims to consolidate efforts across disciplines and countries so that converging evidence can be used to build a strong evidence base. This goal is achieved through a series of conferences where the latest research and models are exchanged, and research networks are broadened to form interdisciplinary collaborations. Cross-training the next generation of scientists is a priority, and the investigators on this proposal are products of prior conference training. Thus, the three specific aims are: (1) Facilitate building and expanding resources (databases, metrics, tools) so that knowledge transfer is broadened and deepened among current researchers in population hearing health; (2) Promote interdisciplinary research by bringing together experts from areas of population health research outside hearing care to engage in discussions and activities related to population hearing health where there are unrealized synergies with other domains of health; and (3) Support the development of future generations of researchers in population hearing, by fostering the participation of individuals with strong meritorious potential and a range of professional backgrounds and lived experiences.