hearing loss, a common condition which in many cases leads to depression.
In a groundbreaking new study, investigators from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders
has found an elevated risk of depression among people who experience
any loss of audiology, with deaf people at no higher risk — all else
equal.
Men are more likely to experience hearing loss
than women, though a higher percentage of elderly women develop
tinnitus, at 14 percent to 12.3 percent. And for whatever reasons,
tinnitus is more common among whites and Southerners, with rates nearly
twice as high down South as in the Northeast.
In the study,
scientist Li Chuang-Ming found that depression rates increased with
hearing loss after analyzing data from a national survey of adults aged
18 to 70. The survey showed that 4.9 percent of Americans with excellent
hearing experience depression — a baseline that rises with hearing
loss.
With “good hearing,” 7.1 percent of U.S. adults reported feeling
depressed. But among those with greater hearing impairment, depression
rose to 11.4 percent.
However, hearing loss bothered
more women than men after the age of 70. Although men tended to accept
hearing loss as septuagenarians, women reported greater depression rates
after moderate hearing loss, measured as 35 to 50 decibels.
With any
level of hearing loss, women across the age spectrum experienced greater
sadness and depression at 14.7 percent, comapred to nine percent of men
with hearing loss.
Depression
rates were also higher among those who wore a hearing aid, suggesting
something inherently depressing about the device itself. Only one in
five people who might benefit from a hearing aid choose to wear one.
Ming and his colleagues say clinicians should improve depression
screenings for people with hearing loss, paying particular attention to
older women.
Interestingly, deaf people in the study
appeared nearly immune from depression with a rate of only 0.06 percent
reporting such feelings.
0 comments:
Post a Comment