Managing your hearing health can have a measurable positive impact on your overall quality of life. Research has found that hearing loss solutions such as hearing aids, cochlear implants and other assistive listening devices can have many benefits on an individual’s mental and physical health. For example, hearing aids have been shown to reduce loneliness, slow the onset of dementia, reduce the impact of anxiety and depression as well as lowering the risk of falls.
A survey in 2020 found that more than 20 000 adults with a severe hearing loss who did not wear hearing aids were more likely to report that they were in poorer health, and they were less likely to leave home or exercise regularly. While this was not found to be the same for people who wore hearing aids.
Being able to hear well means that you can communicate easily with people around you such as listening to your children and other family and friends talk about their day. Hearing well means you can continue doing the activities and hobbies you enjoy like going to the movies, playing tennis, lawn bowls, eating out or attending club meetings. Hearing well enables you to do regular exercise like going for a ‘walk and talk’ with a friend. It gives you the confidence to keep you mind and body active. However, untreated hearing loss can often put a stop to many of these things.
Hearing loss makes conversations difficult to follow. Hearing loss can make conversations in noisy places such as restaurants and cafes even more impossible to engage and be a part of. This can lead to frustration, causing people to avoid social situations, groups, family events and noisy places in general. Hearing loss can make listening hard work and can require a lot of cognitive effort for a person to follow conversations. Hence, why it may be a lot easier to stay at home in front of the TV where you can turn the volume up as loud as you like. Unfortunately, this does not have great long-term effects on an individual’s overall health.
Hearing loss left untreated can cause people to remove themselves from social situations because listening becomes all too hard. There is only so long that a person will preserve in trying to hear conversations. Far too often a person will start off saying “what”, “pardon” or “huh” as it is difficult to pick out words from background noise. This will then turn into nodding along or smiling as they often get fed up with asking their friends or family to constantly repeat themselves. From here, this turns into no longer wanting to be in or part of conversations as they do not hear enough to participate, making withdrawing from the conversation much easier than being left out.
This withdrawal from social situations is a huge contributor to isolation, loneliness, and depression. With hearing loss, people may no longer attend church as they cannot hear the sermons, others may not communicate with their family, children, because asking for repeats or to speak louder becomes embarrassing and difficult. The situation they find themselves in leads to frustration and can be very upsetting.
That all said, the flip side of this is that the early detection, intervention, and treatment can make a significant and positive impact on an individual’s psychological, physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. Hearing aids and their incredible technological advancements can enhance clarity of speech in noisy situations such as group outings or family events. Hearing aids today can connect to Bluetooth devices and makes conversing on the phone a very easy and pleasant experience. Today’s hearing aid technology also assists in reducing the amount of effort needed to listen.
Have you noticed a friend, spouse, or family member showing any of the above-mentioned behaviours? Ask them if they are ok, and how you can help. Encourage them, support them, and be part of their better hearing journey.
The most important part to maintaining mental, psychological, and physical health is taking the first step towards managing your hearing health. Value Hearing is an independent hearing care provider offering comprehensive hearing assessments, and hearing aid assessments across Australia. Taking a positive and proactive approach, the audiology team at Value Hearing are with you every step of the way.
To book an appointment at a Value Hearing near you, click here or call 1800 841 837.