Lauren Dillard

Medical University of South Carolina | MUSC · Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Introduction This study aimed to determine the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from exposure to personal listening devices (PLDs) and loud entertainment venues in individuals aged 12–34 years, and to estimate the number of young people who could be at risk of hearing loss from unsafe listening worldwide. Methods We conducted a systematic...

Longitudinal electronic health records from a large sample of new hearing-aid (HA) recipients in the US Veterans Affairs healthcare system were used to evaluate associations of fitting laterality with long-term HA use persistence as measured by battery order records, as well as with short-term HA use and satisfaction as assessed using the Internati...

Background There is little information on whether video gaming might be a modifiable risk factor for hearing loss and/or tinnitus, despite the plausibility of these relationships given that video games are often played at high-intensity sound levels and for long periods of time. Objective To synthesise current evidence related to relationships bet...

Background Little is known about the natural history of hearing loss in adults, despite it being an important public health problem. The purpose of this study is to describe the rate of hearing change per year over the adult lifespan. Methods The 1436 participants are from the MUSC Longitudinal Cohort Study of Age-related Hearing Loss (1988-presen...

Hearing loss is an important global public health issue which can be alleviated through treatment with hearing aids. However, most people who would benefit from hearing aids do not receive them, in part due to challenges in accessing hearing aids and related services, which are most salient in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and other resou...

Objectives Synthesise literature related to perceptions of hearing loss and hearing technology (hearing aids, cochlear implants) among the general public and healthcare providers who do not specialise in ear and hearing care. Design Scoping review. Data sources We searched three databases (PubMed, Scopus, Ovid Medline) in August 2023 for peer-rev...

Background The masking-level difference (MLD) can be measured via voluntary behavioral responses (voluntary behavioral MLD [vMLD]) and/or via electrophysiological cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs; electrophysiological MLD [eMLD]). It may be possible to enhance the ecologic validity of the MLD by using nonsense-syllable speech stimuli. Pur...

Objective: Describe how the Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory (RHHI) changes over time and determine associated factors. Design: Data were from a community-based cohort study. Linear regression models were used to estimate mean baseline and final RHHI scores and change (final minus baseline score). Logistic regression models were used to determ...

Background Hearing loss is common in aging adults and is an important public health concern. Self-reported measures of hearing difficulty are often used in research and clinical practice, as they capture the functional impacts of hearing loss on individuals. However, little research has evaluated the prevalence or factors associated with self-repor...

Background New standardised measures of self-reported hearing difficulty can be validated against audiometric hearing loss. This study reports the influence of demographic factors (age, sex, race and socioeconomic position (SEP)) on the agreement between audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty. Methods Participants were 1558...

Purpose This study aimed to (a) compare the Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory (RHHI) and pure-tone average (PTA) in their abilities to predict hearing aid use and (b) report the optimal cut-point values on the RHHI and PTA that predict hearing aid use. Method Participants were from a community-based cohort study. We evaluated the ability of the R...

Hearing and vision impairment are highly prevalent in ageing individuals and are significant public health concerns given their meaningful impacts on individuals and society. Yet, many cases of both visual and hearing impairment remain unidentified and thus, unaddressed. This article describes the rationale and process of monitoring for visual and...

Purpose: This article aimed to evaluate associations of self-reported hearing loss with health care access and delays and difficulties communicating with health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: The COVID-19 Community Impact Survey was administered online to a sample of participants from the population-based Survey of the Heal...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate associations of dietary intake components with hearing loss. Method Participants were from the population-based Survey of the Health of Wisconsin. The Block food frequency questionnaire measured dietary intake of carbohydrates, fiber, protein, free (added) sugars, fruits, vegetables, saturated and...

This study evaluated the agreement between audiometric hearing loss and Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory (RHHI) self-reported hearing difficulty, and modification by demographic factors (age, sex, race, socioeconomic status [SES]) in adults across the lifespan. Baseline data from the Medical University of South Carolina Longitudinal Cohort Study...

Objectives Hearing-aid use may reduce risk of dementia, but cognitive impairment makes use more challenging. An observed association between reduced hearing-aid use and incident dementia could reflect either or both of these causal paths. The objective was to examine the effects of each path while minimising contamination between paths. Methods He...

Objectives Determine associations of hearing loss (HL) and hearing aid (HA) use with cognition, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants were from the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study or Beaver Dam Offspring Study. HL was defined as pure-tone average (.5–4.0 kHz) > 25 dB. A principal component analysi...

Background Hearing loss is a highly prevalent chronic condition impacting communication and may negatively influence patients’ health care experiences. Objective Determine associations of hearing loss with perceived health care access, timeliness, satisfaction, and quality in a representative sample of the general population. Methods The Survey o...

Platinum-based chemotherapeutic agents cisplatin and carboplatin are widely used in cancer treatment worldwide and may result in ototoxic hearing loss. The high incidence of cancer and salient ototoxic effects of platinum-based compounds pose a global public health threat. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, to estimate the prevalence of...

Objective: Evaluate the conceptual framework that age effects on the electrophysiological binaural masking level difference (MLD) are partially mediated by age-related hearing loss and/or global cognitive function via mediation analysis. Design: Participants underwent a series of audiometric tests. The MLD was measured via cortical auditory evok...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-reported hearing loss and associated risk factors in a representative population-based study of Wisconsin residents. Method Survey of the Health of Wisconsin participants with data on self-reported hearing loss were included. We reported prevalence of self-reported hearing l...

Purpose Hearing loss (HL) is common among middle-age and older adults, but hearing aid adoption is low. The purpose of this study was to measure the 10-year incidence of hearing aid adoption in a sample of primarily middle-age adults with high-frequency HL and identify factors associated with hearing aid adoption. Method This study included 579 ad...

Objectives Hearing-aid use may reduce risk of dementia, but cognitive impairment makes hearing-aid use more challenging. These two causal pathways may both manifest as an association between reduced hearing-aid use and incident dementia. This study examined the effects of each pathway separately, through a unique combination of longitudinal data re...

Objectives Psychological well-being (PWB) may be a potential modifiable risk factor of age-related diseases. We aimed to determine associations of PWB with sensorineural and cognitive function and neuronal health in middle-aged adults. Methods This study included 2039 Beaver Dam Offspring Study participants. We assessed PWB, hearing, visual acuity...

Background Aminoglycosides are widely used, broad-spectrum antibiotics with significant potential for ototoxicity. Global efforts to prevent ototoxicity must account for aminoglycoside overuse and non-prescription use. Objectives The goal of this study was to estimate the prevalence of aminoglycoside antibiotic overuse by synthesizing evidence on...

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the long-term associations of musical training with speech perception in adverse conditions and cognition in a longitudinal cohort study of middle-age to older adults. Method This study is based on Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study participants. We asked participants at baseline (1993–1995) about the...

Background Drugs used in curative and prophylactic antimalarial treatment may be ototoxic and lead to permanent hearing loss, but there is no consensus regarding prevalence and permanence of ototoxic hearing loss caused by antimalarials. The purpose of this systematic narrative review was to synthesize current evidence on antimalarial ototoxicity i...

Objectives: Estimate the prevalence of ototoxic hearing loss in drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients treated with aminoglycoside antibiotics via a systematic review and meta-analysis. Estimate the annual preventable cases of hearing loss in DR-TB patients and leverage findings to discuss primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Methods:...

Objective: We describe the construction of a hearing aid long-term use persistence measure based on battery reorder data. The measure is derived from the notion that hearing aid users keep using their devices for some time after placing a battery order. Design: A hearing aid user is defined as persistent at time T if they placed a battery order...

Neurodegenerative diseases are public health challenges in aging populations. Early identification of people at risk for neurodegeneration might improve future treatment. Noninvasive, inexpensive screening tools are lacking but of great potential. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures nerve cell layer thicknesses in the retina, which is an an...

Objectives: This article presents a summary of audiological, general health, and hearing aid (HA) outcome data in a large sample of U.S. Veterans receiving HAs. The current article also provides the foundation for a series of papers that will explore relationships between a wide range of factors and HA outcomes. Design: The patient sample is all...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to (i) develop a model that predicts hearing aid (HA) use and (ii) determine if model fit is improved by adding factors not typically collected in audiological evaluations. Design: Two models were created and evaluated. The "clinical" model used factors typically collected during audiologic clinical evalua...

Objective The purpose of this study was to (i) develop a model that predicts hearing aid (HA) use and (ii) determine if model fit is improved by adding factors not typically collected in audiological evaluations. Design Two models were created and evaluated. The “clinical” model used factors typically collected during audiologic clinical evaluatio...

Importance Age-adjusted prevalence of hearing impairment (HI) decreased across generations in the 20th century, suggesting that HI is partially preventable. It is not known whether HI incidence differs by generation. Objectives To examine whether HI incidence and change in pure-tone average (PTA) differ by generation and identify factors underlyin...

Purpose The dichotic digits test (DDT) is commonly administered in clinical and research settings, but it is not well understood how performance changes in aging. The purpose of this study is to determine the 5-year change on the free recall task and right ear advantage (REA) in a population-based cohort and factors associated with change. Method...

Purpose The clinical data stored in electronic health records (EHRs) provide unique opportunities for audiological clinical research. In this article, we share insights from our experience of working with a large clinical database of over 730,000 cases. Method Under a framework outlining the process from patient care to researcher data use, we des...

Background Neurodegenerative diseases are public health challenges in aging populations. Early identification of people at risk for neurodegeneration might improve targeted treatment. Noninvasive, inexpensive screening tools are lacking but are of great potential. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures the thickness of nerve cell layers in the...

Background: Photovoice is a participatory action research method in which people take photographs to represent real-world experiences, so that issues of interest/concern can be documented. There are no published studies in which photovoice has been used in audiological rehabilitation (AR). The purpose of this feasibility study was to examine wheth...

Background: Associations between vascular health-related factors and hearing loss defined using audiometric pure-tone thresholds have been found. Studies have not focused on a potential relationship between vascular health-related factors and central auditory processing. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate, on a population level, the...

Background: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) audiologists have anecdotally reported examining numerous Veterans with normal pure-tone thresholds; however, the prevalence of these patients within the VA is unknown. The VA audiological data repository provides an ideal dataset to examine this group of Veterans. Knowing the prevalence of normal-he...