§ John CryerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the age profile of hearing aid users who have been using analogue hearing aids for more than three years. [116686]
§ Jacqui SmithAlthough we have made no detailed age profile, as part of the modernising hearing aid services project a sample was taken of just over 5,000 patients who had been using hearing aids for about three years or more before the project began. This showed a mean age of 70 years with a standard deviation of 14 years, that is, just over two thirds of patients in the sample were aged between 56 and 84 years.