Grant: Project Grant

Hearing loss is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, and more than 20% of adult Canadians have measurable hearing loss in at least one ear. Hearing loss can reduce quality of life substantially. If hearing loss occurs during mid-life when individuals are likely to be employed and raising a family, the emotional and financial toll on patients, their families, and society can be significant. Sudden sensori-neural hearing loss, single-sided deafness and Meniere's disease frequently attack the middle-aged, and early detection followed by rapid intervention are advised. While past systematic reviews for these conditions have assessed the effectiveness of interventions in isolation, there exists an urgent need to employ a more rigorous approach to comparison of treatments that enables comparison of all available interventions. Each of these indications are associated with a range of available therapies from which clinicians can choose, and thus multi-treatment reviews (often called 'network meta-analyses') are needed. The planned application involves three planned systematic reviews of this nature. The multi-disciplinary team includes researchers, clinicians and patients and will address important knowledge gaps for these conditions.