Psychological Effects of Hearing Loss🦻🏻🧏🏻♀️||
Impact of hearing impairment on psychological distress and subjective well-being in Older Adults
Objective:
The main objective of this study was to explore the impact of hearing impairment on psychological distress and subjective well-being in older adults with hearing impairment.
Methods:
The study with cross-sectional research design was conducted in three public sector hospitals of Lahore, from February 2017 to June 2017. Participants of the study were adults aged 50-90 years and with hearing impairment, selected through a non-probability sampling technique. Demographic Information sheet, Kessler psychological distress scale by Kessler, and Mroczek. in 1992, and the Satisfaction with Life scale by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin in 1985 were used for data collection. SPSS 21 was used to analyze the data.
Results:
There were 200 participants with ages ranging from 53 to 89 years (M= 65.92, SD= 9.70). Of the total, 100 (50%) subjects were men and 100 (50%) were women. Significant gender differences were found in psychological distress, with men reflecting more symptoms of psychological distress (p<0.01), whereas non-significant gender differences were found in the case of subjective well-being (p>0.05). Moreover, psychological distress was observed as a predictor of subjective well-being (p<0.01). One-way analysis of variance revealed insignificant differences in psychological distress and subjective well-being across three levels of hearing impairment.
Conclusion:
Early diagnosis and rehabilitation of age-related hearing loss improve the overall quality of life of older adults living with hearing impairment.
INTRODUCTION
Hearing impairment is described as the partial or total loss of hearing ability. On the basis of the severity of the problem hearing impairment can be classified as mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Age-related hearing impairment is a very common disorder in older adulthood. It is considered as a third most prevalent chronic health condition in people over 65 years of age.
1 Hearing impairment in old age typically stems from some pathological changes inside the ear which are related to aging, it may lead to the impairment of low to high-frequency hearing. This problem comes up with greater difficulty in a listening process that significantly impairs a person’s ability to communicate with others, which in turn is a serious concern related to the mental health of individuals.
2 Hearing impairment in adults is specified by a threshold greater than 40 dBHL in the better-hearing ears. There is no proven treatment for age-related hearing loss, the only way to help people with hearing loss is the use of assistive techniques (hearing aids and cochlear implants) that can increase the threshold to a significant level but do not return hearing to normal.
3 Hearing impairment in aging is substantially associated with disability, increased risk of incident morbidity, poor self-perceived health,
4 poor psychological well-being, low levels of self-efficacy, and happiness.
5 The problem is also proven to be linked with anxiety, cognitive decline, and lower health-related quality of life.
6 Aforementioned symptoms and their morbidity were found conceivably related to the severity of hearing impairment itself.
7 Psychological distress is defined as the condition of emotional disturbance with feelings of anxiety (e.g., feeling restless and tense), and depression (e. g., feeling hopeless and loss of interest). People may experience psychological distress while coping with stressful, disturbing, or harmful circumstances in their daily life.
8 While studying the psychological distress in hearing-impaired older adults it was reported that they were more vulnerable to mental health problems like depression, decreased well-being, emotional sensitivity, and aggression.
9 Hearing loss can prevent people from being exposed to socially challenging circumstances resulting in isolation which significantly impinges upon their quality of life and mental health.
10 Perceived social disability has been proven to serve as a mediator between hearing impairment and psychological distress including aggression.
11 It has been reported that adults with hearing loss tend to exhibit more symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and emotional sensitivity as compared to people with normal hearing.
12 Subjective well-being is how a person evaluates his/her life cognitively and emotionally as a whole, it basically includes cognitive judgments concerning life satisfaction and emotional reactions to life events that may be positive or negative.
13 Hearing loss poses a serious risk to the mental well-being and overall quality of life in older adults. People may experience diminished self-esteem that in effect leads to poor mental health and a decline in psychological well-being.
14 In a study intended to find out the impact of hearing loss on cognitive and emotional domains specifically, most of the people described that hearing impairment has a significantly negative connotation and it accounts for poor well-being in general.
15 It is evident from the literature that higher well-being was significantly linked to decreased mental distress and social isolation in the adult population with hearing impairment. The study provides clear evidence that rehabilitation techniques and proper intervention plan not only have a remarkable effect on the well-being of people with hearing impairment but it also reduces psychological distress to a greater extent.
16 Current study aimed to gauge the impact of age-related hearing impairment on psychological distress and subjective well-being in older adults. Gender differences in psychological distress and subjective well-being were studied. Additionally, the predictive relationship between psychological distress and subjective well-being and the difference in both variables were investigated.
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