This article is part of the January/February 2026, Volume 38, Number 1, Audiology Today issue.
By Irina Linkov Middleton, Anna Bixler, Karla Belcastro, Jacob Hunter, and Natalie Snyder
Introduction
Depression, isolation, frustration, and cognitive impairment are terms often associated with the long-term effects of untreated hearing loss (HL) (Gopinath et al., 2011; Gregory et al., 2020; Simpson et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2015). The effects do not stop here; there are other issues reported among individuals with reported and documented HL, each with varying degrees of functional impact. As hearing healthcare professionals, we have undoubtedly heard the common phrases from patients: “I am always asking others to repeat themselves,” “I can hear but I cannot understand,” “My family is mad I cannot hear them. They are tired of screaming so I can hear them,” and “I have stopped going out because I just cannot hear.”
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