Archive for February, 2019

For people with an untreated hearing loss, healthcare costs increase by 46%, or by $22,434 per person over a period of 10 years, compared to people without a hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.

The researchers found that medical costs were 25.9% ($3,852), 36.9% ($11,147) and 46.5% ($22,434) higher over the 2-, 5-, and 10-year periods for individuals with untreated hearing loss compared with those without hearing loss. Just $600 of the $22,434 were specifically related to the hearing loss after 10 years, according to the study.

The study did not include patients with hearing loss who used hearing aids.

More hospital stays

The study also found that after 10 years, patients with untreated hearing loss had experienced about 50% more hospital stays, had about a 44% higher risk of hospital readmission within 30 days, were 17% more likely to have an emergency department visit and had about 52 more outpatient visits compared to those without hearing loss.

About the study

The researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reached their findings after analyzing information from the OptumLabs Data Warehouse, a large healthcare dataset including administrative claims from 1999-2016 for adults 50 years or older. The participants were observed after 2, 5 and 10 years.

The study “Trends in Health Care Costs and Utilization Associated With Untreated Hearing Loss Over 10 Years” was published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2018.

Content by Hear-It.org

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes — if you’re one of them, take note. You may want to keep a close watch on your hearing, too. Research indicates diabetics are more than twice as likely to develop hearing loss than those without the disease.   Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, amputations, heart failure and stroke. Symptoms of the disease include frequent urination, increased thirst and/or hunger, sleepiness, weight loss, blurred vision, difficulty in concentrating and slow healing of infections.

In recent years, two studies have examined the relationship between diabetes and hearing loss.

• In a 2008 study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), diabetic participants were found to be more than twice as likely to have mild to moderate hearing loss than those without the disease. The occurrence of high-frequency hearing loss was more prevalent in diabetics (54%) than in non-diabetics (32%).
• An additional study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2012 supported NIH’s previous findings. This study analyzed results from 13 studies involving more than 20,000 participants. The study concluded that diabetics were more likely to have hearing loss than those without the disease, regardless of their age.

Scientists are not entirely sure why diabetes negatively impacts the sense of hearing; however, they suspect high blood glucose levels cause damage to the small blood vessels in the inner ear.

Like other parts of the body, the hair cells of the inner ear rely on good circulation to maintain health. These hair cells are responsible for translating the noise our ears collect into electrical impulses, which they send along the auditory nerve to the brain to interpret as recognizable sound. These sensory hair cells, known as stereocilia, do not regenerate. Once they are damaged or die, hearing is permanently affected. The resulting sensorineural hearing loss can often be treated with hearing devices such as hearing aids or cochlear devices. A hearing evaluation will determine the amount of hearing loss; a hearing healthcare professional can interpret those results to recommend appropriate treatment options.

Content by HealthyHearing