Hearing Loss and Health Care

Does having hearing loss lead to less satisfied health-care consumers. Researchers from Johns Hopkins asked this specific question of approximately 250 individuals (mean age 77) in Maryland who were a part of at the Artherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.

Participants were asked about their level of satisfaction from health-care services they had received over the last 12 months. Participants had to choose from four categories of satisfaction and the highest satisfaction rating was deemed to designate satisfied participants while the other three were categorized to mean less than satisfied.

Hearing thresholds were measured in all participants. The authors show that satisfaction is systematically lower with increasing hearing loss in the oldest subjects (80-year-olds).

Reference

Nicholas S. Reed, Joshua F. Betz, Anna M. Kucharska‐Newton, Frank R. Lin, Jennifer A. Deal  (2019). Hearing loss and satisfaction with health care: An unexplored relationship. J Am Geriatr Soc 67(3):624–626.