Hearing loss is an invisible handicap and silent epidemic in hospitals, nursing homes, and other group living situations. Quality of life and quality of care for the resident depends on the resident being able to understand what is happening around them and being able to participate in social events and dining room conversation. When an adult is hospitalized for diabetes issues, cardiovascular events, kidney failure and severe infections, there is a potential risk of increased hearing loss due to the medical crisis.
Adult hearing loss risk factors and associated conditions include:
- advanced age.
- chronic health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, hypothyroidism, Crohn’s disease).
- ototoxic medications that treat infection, pain, cancer, and excessive fluid in the body.
- disorders of the ear (e.g., Meniere’s disease, otosclerosis, autoimmune inner ear disease, genetic).
- exposure to recreational noise (e.g., personal listening devices) and/or occupational noise (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, guns, chain saws).
Even a person with hearing aids and an identified hearing loss can incur additional hearing decline and should receive an audiology evaluation during or after the hospitalization to assess any changes in hearing. If a recent decline in hearing levels is found, adjustments to hearing aid programming can correct and improve hearing. All person going to a skilled nursing facility from the hospital, must be screened, assessed or reassessed for potential changes to hearing levels.
5 Facts about Hearing:
- Hospitalizations can cause a risk of change to hearing, caused by chronic disease, medications, trauma from falls and accidents. For example:
- Diabetes out of control causes hearing loss, risk of falls, foot neuropathy and vision loss. The resident with diabetes may also experience auditory processing problems: they are able to hear speech, but it is not clear or comprehensible. Loss of vision removes the ability to lipread the speaker, which takes away 30-40% understanding in conversation.
- Cardiovascular disease issues of stroke and heart attack cause hearing loss, risk of falls, neuropathy. Strokes can damage hearing in one ear while the other ear continues to hear well. Unfortunately, it impossible for the resident to hear and understand speech in a noisy background with only one working ear.
- Nursing home residents have a lifetime history of family genetics, noise exposure, falls and accidents and illnesses that may have affected hearing. Years of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws can take away the high pitch sounds in speech, which are the consonants: the beginning and ends of words. With this type of hearing loss, the resident only hears vowel sounds, which makes the speaker sound like they are mumbling.
- Take this valid hearing screening to find out if there is a problem. Even when the resident has a known hearing loss and wears hearing aids, a new hearing evaluation is needed after hospitalizations and annually to monitor changes in hearing and auditory processing
- Check your family members hearing with the hearing screening link above.
- Check your own hearing: you don’t know what you don’t know.
- If you or your family member fail the screening, find an audiologist HERE, for an appointment.
- Hearing services are federally mandated in all group living situations.
- Hearing help is available:
- Hearing screening must occur before any cognitive evaluations and treatments.
- Federal law OBRA mandates the nursing home provides hearing services. This law also requires coverage of hearing services for Medicaid adults.
- The Olmstead Act of 1999 ensures that residents in all group living situations have state coverage for hearing services, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.