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HEALTH & SCIENCENow hear this: Paying attention to hearing lossAs the American population grays, age-related hearing problems will become more widespread. Doctors play a key role in helping patients realize it's a condition that can be addressed.By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Nov. 4, 2002. Recently retired couples soon may begin replaying the following scene in their physicians' offices. Wife to physician: "He's deaf as a post." Husband to physician: "No I'm not, she doesn't talk correctly." They may both be right. But to get to the bottom of the problem, and to avoid conversing at top volume with aging baby boomers, primary care physicians should consider routinely screening patients for possible hearing loss. It's a step that can have a significant impact both on patients' quality of life and their health outcomes. "We always get our vision tested, but not our hearing," said Lynn Luethke, PhD, the National Institutes of Health program director in hearing. Still, sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most prevalent disabling conditions in the United States, according to NIH findings. It affects some 20 million to 26 million people and is already present in 35% to 42% of individuals older than 65. Unlike conductive hearing loss, which is correctable by removing an obstacle to sound waves, for instance a buildup of earwax, sensorineural hearing loss develops when the auditory nerve or hair cells in the inner ear are damaged. Noise, smoking, aging and certain medications are believed to be the cause. "It's the No. 1 disability among the elderly," noted David Nielsen, MD, executive vice president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology. "We call it the silent disability. There's no wheelchair or white cane, no cast on an arm or leg. People who have it just muddle through, struggling with communication," he said. [...] Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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