Doctors in the United States have found evidence that hearing aids can help reduce loneliness and perceived isolation among older people who fear going deaf.
The researchers said that people who have been treated for hearing loss were able to retain “one additional social connection on average over a three-year period when compared with those who received no hearing therapies and were instead educated about healthy ageing”.
Providing hearing aids could help address a “loneliness epidemic” among the elderly, the team claimed, citing US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveys where more than a quarter of elderly people said they have little or no contact with others, and a third reported that they felt lonely.
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In research based on discussions with almost 1,000 patients and published by the American Medical Association, the team said that making hearing aids widely available “is a scalable, low-risk strategy that, if implemented broadly, may allow for a large population-level reduction in social isolation and loneliness”.
Older people whose hearing difficulties were treated or eased were found to have “more diverse relationships” and to maintain “deeper, higher-quality bonds than those who were not treated for hearing loss”.
“Our findings add to evidence that helping ageing patients hear better can also enrich their social lives and boost their mental and physical well-being,” said New York University clinical audiologist and epidemiologist Associate Professor Dr Nicholas Reed.
The research team also included doctors and scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of South Florida and the University of Pittsburgh. – dpa
