Are you aware that around one in three adults between the ages of 65 and 74 is impacted by hearing impairment and half of them are over 75? But in spite of its prevalence, only about 30% of people who have hearing loss have ever used hearing aids (and that number drops to 16% for people under the age of 69! At least 20 million people suffer from untreated hearing loss and some reports put this number at over 30 million.
There are numerous reasons why people may not seek treatment for hearing loss, particularly as they grow older. Only 28% of people who reported some degree of hearing loss actually got examined or sought further treatment, according to one study. Many individuals just accept hearing loss as a normal part of the process of aging. Hearing loss has long been easy to diagnose, but thanks to the considerable improvements that have been made in hearing aid technology, it’s also a highly manageable condition. This is significant because your ability to hear isn’t the only health risk linked to hearing loss.
A study from a research group based out of Columbia University adds to the documentation linking hearing loss to depression. They collected data from over 5,000 people aged 50 and older, giving each subject an audiometric hearing test and also assessing them for symptoms of depression. After correcting for a range of variables, the researchers found that the odds of suffering with clinically significant symptoms of depression goes up by about 45% for every 20-decibel increase in hearing loss. And for the record, 20 dB is very little noise, it’s lower than a whisper, roughly equal to the sound of rustling leaves.
It’s surprising that such a small difference in hearing generates such a large increase in the chances of suffering from depression, but the basic connection isn’t a shock. This new study adds to the sizable existing literature associating hearing loss and depression, like this multi-year investigation from 2000, which found that mental health worsened along with hearing loss. Another study from 2014 that found both people who self-reported problems hearing and who were found to have hearing loss based on hearing tests, had a substantially higher risk of depression.
Here’s the good news: Researchers and scientists don’t believe that it’s a biological or chemical relationship that exists between hearing loss and depression. It’s likely social. Trouble hearing can lead to feelings of anxiety and lead sufferers to stay away from social situations or even everyday conversations. This can increase social separation, which further feeds into feelings of anxiety and depression. It’s a terrible cycle, but it’s also one that’s easily broken.
Treating hearing loss, in most cases with hearing aids, according to multiple studies, will decrease symptoms of depression. 1.000 people in their 70’s were studied in a 2014 study which couldn’t determine a cause and effect relationship between hearing loss and depression because it didn’t look over time, but it did demonstrate that those individuals were much more likely to experience depression symptoms if they had neglected hearing loss.
But the hypothesis that treating hearing loss relieves depression is bolstered by a more recent study that followed subjects before and after wearing hearing aids. A 2011 study only observed a small group of people, 34 subjects total, the researchers found that after three months with hearing aids, every one of them demonstrated significant improvement in both depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning. And those results are long lasting according to a small-scale study conducted in 2012 which demonstrated ongoing relief in depression symptoms for every single subject who wore hearing aids as much as 6 months out. And even a full year after starting to use hearing aids, a group of veterans in a 1992 study were still experiencing relief from symptoms of depression.
Hearing loss is difficult, but you don’t have to go it alone. Learn what your options are by getting a hearing test. It could help improve more than your hearing, it could positively affect your quality of life in ways you hadn’t even envisioned.
References
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/age-related-hearing-loss
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27818440
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#8
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2664072
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2717904
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2717904
https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/40/3/320/605349
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24604103
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3773611/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167494310001147
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1447-0594.2011.00789.x
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1494282