Adults who recognize that their hearing abilities have diminished often do not let their doctors or nurses know, a new study has found. This unaddressed loss can lead to social isolation, depression and reduced quality of life, the researchers said.
Investigators aimed to uncover the proportion of older adults who transition from acknowledging their hearing loss to getting access to treatment. To do so, they examined data from more than 8,500 adults with hearing loss in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging Wave 7.
Nearly 40% of those who acknowledged that they were experiencing hearing loss did not tell a doctor or nurse. Groups most likely to forgo reporting hearing loss included women, retirees, those with foreign education (the study was conducted in the United Kingdom), lower education, smokers and heavy drinkers.
Among those who acknowledged and reported hearing difficulties, willingness to try hearing aids was high, at 79%, Dialechti Tsimpida, PhD, of the University of Liverpool in the U.K., and colleagues found.
“Unacknowledged, or acknowledged but not reported hearing loss by individuals, and non-referrals by primary healthcare professionals, are barriers to accessing hearing healthcare,” they concluded.
The study was published in the International Journal of Audiology.
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