Hearing Loss and Adults…

Hearing loss in older adults is very common. One in every 3 persons has some degree of hearing impairment. However, we do not see many adults opting for hearing tests or hearing aids.

In 35 years of my practice as an Audiologist, I have seen such diverse personalities from this age group but some traits or reactions are surprisingly common.

The most common reaction upon learning about one’s hearing loss after the Audiogram is “Although I do face difficulty in understanding conversations at times, it does not hamper my day to day activities.” I often wonder how stressful or hindering it must be to work with a person with hearing difficulty; a person who is likely to miss out few words leading to broken conversation, or a person failing to comprehend complete message resulting into misunderstanding or a wrong action. At home too, small incidents turn into bitter experiences due to only one member of family who is unable to grasp conversation completely.

Second common observation is people with hearing loss, either do not participate in conversation or control or dominate it by engaging into a monologue and not a dialogue.

Whatever may be the age of onset of hearing loss i.e. the age at which hearing loss occurs, it slows down that person. Separates him/her from others, slowly but surely isolates that person. It makes the person irritable, unhappy. Either rigid towards life or wallow in self-pity. None is good.

Its now been proved that there are high chances of developing dementia in persons, with hearing loss especially in those whose hearing loss remains unattended.