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Open research questions in Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation

465 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,257 Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • measure the stapes' vibration amplitude using laser Doppler vibrometry and the resonance frequency and absorption coefficient using wideband tympanometry, - prospective intervention research and multi-time-point follow-up, - develop a disease-specific prognosis model

    Comments on “Disease-specificity in correlations between speech audiometry, hearing-related quality of life, and varying calculation methods for pure tone average in middle ear diseases” · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies the gap in current studies, which do not use frequency weighting and do not measure middle ear mechanics. It highlights the need for prospective intervention research and multi-time-point follow-up to identify causal relationships.

    Comments on “Disease-specificity in correlations between speech audiometry, hearing-related quality of life, and varying calculation methods for pure tone average in middle ear diseases” · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap in understanding the timecourse of response planning in people listening under demanding conditions, such as older adults with hearing loss. Prior work has focused on populations that find speech processing relatively undemanding, such as younger adults.

    Reduced intelligibility explains delayed responses to questions in older adults with hearing loss · 2026 · DOI

  • The complexity of understanding the misophonic experience. The need for a comprehensive approach to capture the nuances of the condition. The challenge of recruiting participants who meet the criteria for misophonia.

    Understanding the misophonic experience: a mixed method study · 2025 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of why anger and disgust characterize the distress experienced by misophonia sufferers. The need for further research on the meanings conveyed by misophonic trigger stimuli. The limited understanding of the condition, with a need for more comprehensive studies.

    Understanding the misophonic experience: a mixed method study · 2025 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to understand how different types of background noise affect our ability to construct meaning from perceptually complex speech input. Research should investigate the interaction between perceptual and linguistic complexity during processing of speech material that is longer and more complex than a single sentence. Studies should examine the effects of noise and context on speech perception in different populations, such as older adults or individuals with hearing impairments.

    Effects of linguistic context and noise type on speech comprehension · 2024 · DOI

  • Whether such masking also occurs when electric stimulation is delivered near the round window (RW), prior to cochlear insertion, remains unclear.

    Acoustic Masking of Electric Stimulation at Basal and Extra-Cochlear Sites · 2026 · DOI

  • PURPOSE: There is limited evidence available to clearly guide an audiologist's selection of hearing aid technology levels.

    Hearing Aid Selection by Audiologists: A Qualitative Exploration of Clinical Decision Making · 2026 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Research on the association between atherosclerosis cardiovascular diseases (ASCVDs) and hearing loss (HL) in older people has yielded mixed findings in recent years.

    Association of atherosclerosis cardiovascular diseases with hearing loss in older people: a cross-sectional age-stratified analyses of 4,441 participants · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on defining these pathophysiological associations more clearly to develop targeted interventions for vulnerable older people.

    Association of atherosclerosis cardiovascular diseases with hearing loss in older people: a cross-sectional age-stratified analyses of 4,441 participants · 2026 · DOI

  • Music engagement, which supports cognition and well-being, is affected by HL; however, implications of HL on music reward remain unclear.

    Preserving music reward in age-related hearing loss through training and adaptation · 2026 · DOI

  • Geographic patterns of Medicare billed hearing-related services have not been systematically characterized at the county level, and the socioeconomic correlates of utilization clusters remain underexplored.

    Geospatial analysis of hearing-related services utilization among Medicare beneficiaries, 2017–2021 · 2026 · DOI

  • Whether hearing aid use is able to substantially attenuate cognitive impairment in a short term remains unclear.

    Results from AD-HEARING (ADherence to and adjustment of HEARING aids in clinical routine care as preventive dementia strategy): a prospective 6-month follow-up study on cognition and psychological well-being · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite its preventable nature, long-term trends (1992-2021) in AHL burden and its demographic, socioeconomic, occupational noise exposures, and geographic drivers remain underexplored, limiting targeted intervention strategies.

    Trends and driving factors of age-related hearing loss and severity over 30 years: a cross-sectional study · 2025 · DOI

  • While studies indicate that all auditory processing domains are impacted, it remains unclear which domain most significantly correlates with cognitive functions in MCI, warranting further investigation into these relationships.

    Auditory processing and its cognitive correlates in older adults with mild cognitive impairment · 2025 · DOI

  • OBJECTIVES: Hearing impairment is linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline, yet the progression of cognitive function in affected individuals remains unclear.

    Cognitive function trajectories and influencing factors in Chinese older adults with self-reported hearing impairment: findings from CHARLS 2013–2020 · 2025 · DOI

  • Currently, there is limited research on how this gender disparity might vary by country.

    Country Differences in Older Men’s Hearing Difficulty Disadvantage · 2024 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Little is known about the long-term impact of hearing and vision impairment on social isolation.

    Hearing and vision impairment and social isolation over 8 years in community-dwelling older adults · 2024 · DOI

  • Human hearing is robust to noise, but the basis of this robustness is poorly understood.

    Noise schemas aid hearing in noise · 2024 · DOI

  • The relationship between misophonia, stress, and traumatic stress has not been well characterized scientifically.

    Misophonia is related to stress but not directly with traumatic stress · 2024 · DOI

  • In addition, long-term hearing loss is associated with increased hospitalization and mortality rates; however, the increased risk and duration of effect of hearing loss in combination with other chronic diseases on each psychiatric disorder are still not clearly defined.

    Increased risk of psychiatric disorder in patients with hearing loss: a nationwide population-based cohort study · 2024 · DOI

  • Importance: Dementia and hearing loss are prevalent and represent public health priorities, but little is known about the prevalence of hearing loss among persons living with dementia at a population level.

    Prevalence of Hearing Loss and Hearing Aid Use Among Persons Living With Dementia in the US · 2024 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of the health beliefs and help-seeking behaviour of older adults towards hearing loss. Previous studies have reported that many older adults delay seeking help for hearing loss.

    Help-seeking behaviour of older adults towards hearing loss based on the health belief model: a qualitative research study · 2026 · DOI

  • This study focused on hearing loss among older adults in Singapore, specifically exploring the health beliefs and factors influencing treatment seeking, an area that has been underexplored in the local context. Participants were recruited from the major ethnic groups in Singa- pore and included individuals who spoke either English or Mandarin, the two most commonly used languages among older adults locally [48]. This approach allowed the study to capture perspectives from a large proportion of the local older adult population. Lim et al. BMC Primary Care (2026) 27:158 Page 10 of 11 This study has several limitations. Participants were recruited solely from the polyclinic setting, which may not fully reflect the perspectives of older adults seeking care from private general practitioners or tertiary hos- pitals. Participants with lower educational levels were likely to be under-represented, which may have limited the diversity of perspectives captured, as this group could have differing levels of awareness and attitudes towards hearing loss and its management. Nevertheless, pur- posive sampling was employed to identify a wide range of views and factors affecting older adults’ help-seeking towards hearing loss. Hearing loss was identified primarily through self- report rather than objective audiometric testing, which may limit clinical characterisation of severity. However, as the study focused on perceptions and help-seeking behaviour, self-perceived hearing difficulty was consid- ered appropriate. This study did not include participants who identified as “deaf ” and primarily used sign lan- guage. As a result, the findings may not reflect the experi- ences, help-seeking pathways, and barriers specific to the “deaf ” community, which may differ from those of older adults with age-related hearing loss. While participants with varying hearing care experiences were included, this study did not undertake a formal comparative analysis between hearing aid adopters and non-adopters. Another limitation was that member checking was not performed due to constraints related to the project timeline and logistical challenges in re-engaging participants.

    Help-seeking behaviour of older adults towards hearing loss based on the health belief model: a qualitative research study · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for more accurate and reliable methods for interpreting pure-tone audiograms. Large language models have the potential to address this gap but require further evaluation.

    A multicenter multifunctional assessment of large language models in pure-tone audiogram interpretation for patients · 2026 · DOI

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465 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,257 Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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