These SIG 8 Perspectives articles focus on topics that are important in promoting public health audiology. In “Fundamentals of Epidemiology for the Audiologist,” Torre and Reavis provide an overview of basic epidemiologic concepts including study design, prevalence, incidence, risk ratios, and odds ratios. The authors emphasize that an understanding of epidemiology is crucial for audiologists for a variety of reasons, including to help them assess the quality of publications, evaluate and discuss the efficacy of screening methods, and evaluate and communicate risk factors for ear and hearing problems. In “Hearing Health Care Delivery Outside the Booth,” Gates, Hecht, Grantham, Fallon, and Martukovich review the literature on boothless audiometry and introduce current tools used to deliver hearing health care outside of the traditional clinic setting. From their review, the authors conclude that boothless audiometry technology provides an opportunity for audiologists to expand services to nontraditional settings such as waiting grooms and nursing homes, increasing access to care, early identification, and intervention, and therefore improving health outcomes.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• describe epidemiology and the measures of prevalence and incidence
• describe boothless audiometry products and venues where hearing healthcare services may be provided outside of an audiology clinic or sound booth

Assessment Type
Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

Articles in This Course

1. Fundamentals of Epidemiology for the Audiologist by Peter Torre III and Kelly M. Reavis, published in SIG 8, Volume 6, Issue 5, October 20, 2021
2. Hearing Health Care Delivery Outside the Booth by Kathy Gates, Quintin A. Hecht, Marjorie A. M. Grantham, Andrew J. Fallon, and Malisha Martukovich, published in SIG 8, Volume 6, Issue 5, October 20, 2021