Davis Myers, the textbook write, Ph.D. and Psychology professor at the Hope College in Michigan told about the problems faced by the hearing defected men:
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“Many hard of hearing people battle silently with their invisible hearing difficulties, straining to stay connected to the world around them, reluctant to seek help.”
Furthermore, out of the over 2,000 participants with hearing loss, those who did not seek an improvement of their condition through hearing aids were 50% more likely to suffer from depression. The reasoning, at least partially, he said, is the crimp hearing issues put on social activities – people with hearing aids attend more of them.
Researchers also suggested that hearing loss could also be a risk factor for dementia.
Several studies, showing that failure to seek treatment often leads to other mental issues as hearing gets progressively worse, are cited in a presentation at the conference.
Researchers stated that past studies had found a link between hearing aid use and lower risk of depression or anxiety.
Prof. Myers concluded that making hearing aid devices more appealing to people who need them would be extremely important for these people.
“Getting people to use the latest in hearing aid technology can help them regain control of their life and achieve emotional stability and even better cognitive functioning”, Myers said.
About one-third of American adults between the ages of 65 and 75 have some degree of hearing loss, while for those who are even older, that number rises to almost one in two, the Mayo Clinic notes.
Disclosure: Healio.com/Psychiatry could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.
Around 16% of adults aged 20-69 who would benefit from using a hearing aid have ever tried one. Since social isolation has been linked to dementia (and other cognitive disorders), this result makes intuitive sense. According to Myers, this technology can be likened to Wi-Fi for hearing aids and it transmits sound signals directly into an in-ear hearing aid or cochlear implant, where it is received by an inductive device called a telecoil.
Myers said he is aware that people everywhere are trying to engage people with hearing difficulties and help out in any way, but that the use of hearing loop would help more if public health officials would adopt them.
Myers said that lack of awareness about what they are missing in also causing the delays. A popular belief is that too much wax may also contribute to the issue, but that’s just a myth. Earwax can only reduce hearing temporarily, and there are many solutions to it on the market.
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The system enables hearing aids to serve as wireless speakers and is particularly effective in areas where there is typically a lot of background noise or reverberant sound, such as train stations and auditoriums.
