Hearing loss often an unnoticed disability

Commentary. By Eric Anderson, MD, AMNews contributor. June 20, 2005.

COMMENTARY

Observations on the state of medical practice and medical life

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Art Linkletter, the author and TV personality who entertained America for 60 years, once lectured on the concept "Old Age is Not for Sissies." He remarked, "When you lose your vision you notice your arms getting too short, but when you lose your hearing it's so gradual you miss the problem."

Ken Patterson, an audiologist in Escondido, Calif., understands that. A friend of Linkletter's, he was introduced by him to actor Roy Rogers and fitted the cowboy celebrity with his first hearing aids.

Patterson today is not so concerned with public figures. He is more troubled by the fact that a considerable number of Americans -- 28 million to 38 million depending on the report cited -- are hearing impaired (one of them, me). Many of the hearing impaired are in physicians' offices for other reasons, and doctors having to repeat their instructions don't realize they're seeing the tip of the iceberg and a hearing evaluation is called for.

Indeed, a colleague once criticized one of my patients who was not following his suggestions. "What I told him must have gone in one ear and out the other," he said.

"No," I said, "It's not even going in one ear. Didn't you notice he's deaf?"

Of course we don't notice. We are so busy attending to other concerns patients -- especially the elderly -- bring we don't have time (or make time) to carry out simple audiometry tests that might have taken an extra minute. So we don't realize our patients have a disability.

The Americans with Disabilities Act has surely assisted our patients. And, to a degree, the ADA has helped the hearing impaired. They can get special telephones and request hearing aids in movie theaters that work, somewhat, if the wearer can sit in a central position. But in general the hearing impaired are ignored by our nation, even though studies of those entering college show that, due to the noise bombardment in today's society, these students have the hearing loss of a 40-year-old person.