By Sarah Sesslar, Au.D. Doctor of Audiology/Ear Nerd
A loved one’s hearing loss often limits the restaurants you frequent, the social gatherings you attend, and the television shows you used to enjoy together. Hearing well is essential to living life to the fullest.
For a spouse, child, or friend, it can be difficult to confront a loved one about their hearing loss. Here are some tips to help:
• Seize the moment. Many people have a hard time bringing up hearing loss to their loved ones. Look for a topic that naturally leads you into the conversation and politely suggest that they should have a hearing screening.
• Lean heavily on all the reasons you want them to hear. Put meaning behind your request. Let them know it doesn’t affect just them – their hearing loss can impact the relationship they have with you.
• If they resist, explain how early intervention is the key to success. When people wait too long, the brain forgets how to make sense of certain sounds, and it’s hard to get that clarity back.
• If they resist because of vanity, reassure them. There are plenty of “invisible” hearing aid options available. More people will notice that you are struggling to hear than will ever know you are wearing a hearing aid.
• If they cite a friend’s hearing aid experience as the reason they won’t try, don’t accept that. Everyone has different ears and different reasons for their hearing loss. People with hearing loss can no longer assume that someone else’s experience will be the same as their own.
• Walk the walk. Accompany them to their appointment and let us know that you’d like to have your hearing screened as well. It’s recommended individuals who are 55 years old have a baseline hearing screening. And it’s free!
While addressing hearing loss with a loved one may seem challenging, the reward is abundant. So often we hear from folks who have reconnected with their families, gone on dates with their spouses, or heard their grandchildren giggle once again.
Results of untreated hearing loss:
Hearing loss is frustrating for those who have it and for their loved ones. But recent research from Johns Hopkins reveals that it also is linked with walking problems, falls and even dementia.
In a study that tracked 639 adults for nearly 12 years, Johns Hopkins expert Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. Moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia.
Many Causes, Early Symptoms
Everything from genes and noise exposure to medications, head injuries and infections can play a role in hearing loss. Trouble detecting soft or high-pitched sounds is often the first sign that stereocilia —the delicate hair cells that convert sound waves into electrical signals within the ear—have been damaged. Soft sounds include phone conversations or background noise in settings such as restaurants. High-pitched sounds may include children’s voices. Ringing in the ears, called tinnitus, is another early signal of possible hearing loss.
Hearing loss is an invisible handicap. Although it is increasingly prevalent with age, hearing loss is often ignored during the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive and memory disorders in elderly patients (Chartrand, 2005). The comorbidity of hearing loss and cognitive disorders makes it even more important to determine hearing status prior to any diagnostic protocol. This would undoubtedly lead to more appropriate diagnosis and treatment as well as significantly better outcomes for individuals with cognitive impairments.
Vision impairment is another common comorbidity affecting between 9% and 22% of adults over 70 (Saunders & Echt, 2011). Researchers using longitudinal data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Institute on Aging analyzed the relationship between vision impairment and hearing loss on quality of life in older adults, and they concluded that both hearing loss and vision impairment have a negative impact on health, social participation, and daily activities, and those individuals with a combination of both hearing loss and vision impairment (i.e., dual sensory impairment) experience the greatest difficulty (Crews & Campbell, 2004). The implication is that when both sensory systems are impaired, the individual is less able to compensate.
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