How Wearable Tech is Merging with Hearing Aids
Decades of research have revealed a clear link between hearing loss and
By: admin | November 9, 2016
Research shows that when left unaddressed, hearing loss is frequently associated with other physical, mental, and emotional health issues that diminish quality of life.
Most noteworthy, a growing body of research shows a link between unaddressed hearing loss and depression.
A 2014 national study found that hearing loss is associated with an increased risk of depression in adults of all ages and is most pronounced in 18 to 69 year olds. An Italian study found that working adults—35 to 55 years of age—with untreated mild to moderate age-related hearing loss were more prone to depression, anxiety, and interpersonal sensitivity than those without hearing problems. And a Johns Hopkins study found that older adults with hearing loss were 57 percent more likely to have deep episodes of stress, depression or bad mood than their peers with normal hearing.
In light of these findings, some experts believe hearing care professionals have an important role to play in helping to promote good mental health among people with hearing loss.
Years of BHI research have shown that getting a hearing test and using professionally fitted hearing aids when recommended by a hearing healthcare professional is an important way for people with hearing loss to ease the stress associated with intensive listening and to safeguard their quality of life and mental wellbeing.
Other researchers have published similar findings.
An Italian study that appeared in Geriatrics & Gerontology International, for example, concluded that the benefits of digital hearing aids in relation to depressive symptoms, general health and social interactivity, but also in the caregiver-patient relationship, were clearly shown. In fact, reduction in depressive symptoms and improved quality of life at statistically significant levels were observed early on with the use of hearing aids.
A much earlier study—conducted by Cynthia D. Mulrow, MD, MSc, and co-investigators and published in the Annals of Internal Medicineyears before the most recent advancements in hearing aid technologies—concluded that hearing loss is associated with important adverse effects on the quality of life of elderly persons—effects that are reversible with hearing aids.
BHI research shows that addressing hearing loss frequently improves quality of life. Here are some of the feel-good benefits that many people with hearing loss who use hearing aids enjoy.
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