Hearing loss can affect anyone, but the risk of deafness increases with age. Around 42% of persons aged above 50 have a hearing loss, while over 71% of people aged above 70 have hearing problems. Hearing loss disproportionately affects people living in care homes, with around 75% of them having hearing problems.
Unassisted hearing loss can have a profoundly negative impact on a person leading to social isolation, cognitive decline, loss of autonomy, and overall poor quality of life. If you feel that you or a close family member has hearing loss, you can go for a hearing test.
Classifications of Hearing Impairments
Hearing Loss: persons with hearing thresholds of below 20 dB are said to have hearing loss. Hearing impairment can range from mild to profound. It can affect one or both ears and makes it hard to discriminate sounds and have normal conversations.
Hard of Hearing: refers to individuals with mild to severe hearing impairment. People in this category can benefit from hearing interventions such as hearing aids, assistive devices, and cochlear implants.
Deaf: persons with severe hearing loss which implies that they can only communicate through sign language.
Acquired Hearing Loss: persons born with hearing but have lost some or all of their hearing.
Congenital Hearing Loss: people born with hearing impairment that deteriorates with time.
Causes of Hearing Loss
The factors responsible for hearing loss vary with stage of life, with most people developing hearing impairment during critical points in their life.
Prenatal Causes: genetic factors and intrauterine infections can increase the risk of hearing loss for the fetus.
Perinatal Causes: problems such as birth asphyxia (lack of oxygen during birth), low birth weight, severe jaundice, and other perinatal morbidities can increase the risk of hearing loss.
Childhood and Adolescence: issues such as chronic ear infections, meningitis, and the collection of fluids in the ear can increase the risk of hearing loss.
Later Adulthood and Old Age: chronic diseases, otosclerosis and sensorineural degeneration can cause hearing loss.
General Risk Factors: exposure to ear or head trauma, loud noise, smoking, nutritional deficiencies, ototoxic medicines and chemicals, and viral infections increase the risk of hearing loss.
Unsafe Listening Habits Increase Risk of Hearing Loss
The World Health Organization estimates that over one billion young adults worldwide are at risk of hearing impairment caused by unsafe listening habits. The most affected group is teenagers and young adults aged 12-35 years in the middle- and high-income countries.
Around 50% of the at-risk persons are exposed to unsafe sounds through the use of personal electronic devices. Another 40% are exposed to harmful sounds at entertainment facilities such as bars and clubs.
Regular exposure to loud music increases the risk of irreversible hearing loss. People can reduce the risk of loud sound and noise exposure by adopting safe listening habits.
Hearing Loss Has A Negative Impact on Employment
Most children with hearing impairment in developing countries do not go to school or lack access to special education. This lowers their employability. People with hearing problems are also more likely to leave employment than healthy persons.
Further, persons with hearing problems earn less than the average earnings for the general population. The disparity is caused by the inability of persons with hearing problems to access certain jobs.
Moreover, hearing loss prevents people from fulfilling their potential at work. Most persons with hearing problems struggle to communicate at work. Persons with hearing loss may also feel isolated at work, leading to a negative work experience.
Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline
If there is no intervention to correct hearing loss, the mental faculties of the affected person can deteriorate, leading to cognitive disorders. People with unassisted hearing loss are much more likely to develop dementia than persons without hearing loss.
The risk increases with increasing levels of hearing impairment such that those severe hearing losses are 20% more likely to develop dementia than persons without hearing problems. Research indicates that cognitive decline can be prevented or moderated through early intervention to detect and correct hearing loss.
Prevention and Management Strategies
Most causes of hearing impairment can be prevented through public health and clinical interventions across an individual’s life span. For instance, almost 60% of hearing loss in children can be prevented by implementing public health measures to facilitate proper maternal and child care practices. Similarly, the most common causes of hearing impairment in adults can be prevented through public education and regular screening.
Some of the best practices for preventing hearing loss include:
- immunization
- genetic counseling
- good maternal and child care practices
- education on safe listening practices
- introducing regulations to reduce exposure to loud music and noise
- identification and treatment of common ear infections
- following proper prescription guidelines to prevent ototoxic hearing loss
- early identification of ear infections and hearing loss
- systemic screening for hearing loss and ear infection for at-risk groups
Rehabilitation of Persons with Hearing Loss
Several measures can be taken at the family and institutional level to improve the quality of life for people with hearing impairment. The interventions include:
- Use of hearing technologies and devices such as cochlear implants, hearing aids, middle ear implants.
- Use of sensory substitution techniques such as sign language, speech therapy, captions, and signed communication.
- Specialized training to improve perception and develop innovative communication and linguistic skills.
- Use of hearing assistive technologies such as alerting devices, frequency modulation, captioning services, smart devices and sign language interpretation.
