Australia in 2030: what is our path to health for all?

To the Editor: We congratulate Backholer and colleagues for their article.1 This is a timely, powerful call to action.

One in six Australians live with a hearing condition, a proportion that is set to rise as our population ages. However, prevalence also increases with longer exposure to loud noise and is higher in Indigenous and lower socio‐economic status populations. As audiologists, researchers and consumer advocates, we believe that taking a social determinants approach is the best way to significantly improve health and wellbeing.

Historically, approaches to hearing health in Australia have been device‐centric.2 With the Roadmap for Hearing Health,3 collaboratively created by the sector and the federal government, there is an opportunity to change direction. To date, with the notable exception of initiatives in Aboriginal communities,4 hearing health has not been approached through the lens of the social determinants of health. We are currently working to change this.

Physical and digital spaces determine the experience of hearing conditions5 to such an extent that interventions for accessibility can have as much impact on wellbeing as health interventions. Across all specialties, we encourage clinicians and researchers to forge connections with the disciplines of architecture, town planning, acoustic engineering, communications, and technology, to name a few. The HearMe report,5 which combines lived experience narratives with expertise from far beyond the health sector, was a first step in this direction. The work of the Obesity Collective is to be commended for taking a similar approach to an urgent public health issue (www.obesityaustralia.org).

We live in a hearing society, making a person’s hearing status itself a determinant of health. People living with hearing conditions face stigma, discrimination and access barriers, including to health care. As highlighted by Backholer and colleagues,1 the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic was a great disruptor and accelerator, showing us that rapid, society‐wide transformation is achievable. A world that is fulfilling, accessible, inclusive and respectful for people living with hearing conditions is possible if we centre the diversity of lived experience and commit to action on the social determinants of hearing health across the life course.