References
Assessing and treating adults with hearing loss in primary care
Abstract
Practice nurses have an important role in the recognition and treatment of individuals with hearing loss. In this article Banusa Kandasamy, Min Yan Miane Ng and Robert Nash present an approach to identify, examine and manage hearing loss of adults in primary care
Hearing loss is a common presentation with potentially devastating implications on health and quality of life. Nurses, as frontline providers, have an important role in the recognition and treatment of individuals with hearing loss. In addition, waiting-list times and therefore cost of treatment may both be reduced with timely review and intervention by sharing the caseload in primary care. This article aims to present an approach to identify, examine and manage hearing loss of adults in primary care.
Hearing is an integral part of communication and provides us with a safe awareness of our surrounding environment. Yet, this is often taken for granted and hearing loss is commonly viewed as an unfortunate by-product of ageing (Wallhagen and Reed, 2018). Hearing loss is prevalent in the population, affecting over 9 million people in England (Ftouh et al, 2018). Hearing loss can be categorised as sensorineural (inner ear), conductive (middle and outer ear) or mixed (sensorineural and conductive components) (Harkin and Kelleher, 2011). It is a debilitating condition that affects communication, which in turn may impact on employment opportunities and cause significant reduction in an individual's quality of life (Ftouh et al, 2018). A lack of early detection and diagnosis of hearing loss, due to stigma towards deafness (Wallhagen and Reed, 2018), results in inadequate communication with health professionals (Newton and Shah, 2013). Hearing loss is now widely recognised as a primary preventable risk factor of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. It is thought to be mediated by social disengagement and consequent depression, and precipitating accelerated brain atrophy (Livingston et al, 2017).
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