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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Reduced hearing, ownership, and use of hearing aids in elderly people in the UK
— the MRC Trial of the Assessment and Management of Older People in the Community: a cross-cultural survey | | Author(s) | Liam Smeeth, Astrid Fletcher, Edmond Siu-Woon Ng |
| Journal title | The Lancet, vol 359, no 9316, 27 April 2002 |
| Pages | pp 1466-1470 |
| Keywords | Hearing Impairment ; Hearing aids ; Living in the community ; Cross sectional surveys. |
| Annotation | Reduced hearing in older people is important because it is disabling and potentially treatable. In a cross-sectional survey of 32,656 people aged 75+ in 108 UK family practices, 2,537 (8%) reported a lot of difficulty with hearing and 13,630 (42%) a little or a lot of difficulty. 3,795 (26%) of 14,877 participants who completed a whispered voice test failed the test, the proportion rising sharply with age. Following wax removal, 343 passed a retest. 998 (46%) of the 2189 people wearing a hearing aid at the time of testing failed the whispered voice test. More than half those who failed the test did not own a hearing aid. 2,200 (60%) of 3,846 people who owned a hearing aid said they used it regularly. Level of use was strongly related to perceived benefit. Reduced hearing is common and provision of hearing aids for older people is inadequate. Many people who own a hearing aid do not use it regularly, and even when wearing their aid, many still have socially disabling levels of hearing loss. A major source of morbidity in older people could be alleviated by improvements in detection and management of reduced hearing. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020513202 A |
| Classmark | BV: M8: K4: 3KB * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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