If You Have Untreated Hearing Loss Your Healthcare Costs Could be up to 40% More

For a long time, experts have been considering the effect loss of hearing has on a person's health. New research approaches it from a different angle by examining what untreated hearing loss can do to your healthcare budget. As the cost of healthcare continues to escalate, the medical community and consumers are searching for ways to lower these expenses. A study published on November 8, 2018, says a solution as basic as taking care of your hearing loss can make a significant difference.

How Hearing Loss Impacts Health

There are hidden risks with untreated hearing loss, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Researchers spent 12 years following adults with anywhere from slight to severe hearing loss and discovered it had a considerable impact on brain health. For example:

• The risk is triple for those with moderate hearing loss
• Dementia is five times more likely in someone who has severe hearing loss
• The risk of dementia is doubled in people with only slight hearing loss

The study shows that the brain atrophies at a faster rate when a person has hearing loss. The brain needs to work harder to do things such as maintaining balance, and that puts stress on it that can lead to injury.

Poor hearing has an impact on quality of life, too. Stress and anxiety are more likely in a person who can't hear well. They are also prone to depression. All these factors add up to higher medical costs.

The Newest Study

The newest study published November in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that it starts to be a budget breaker if you choose not to address your hearing loss. The University of California San Fransisco, Johns Hopkins with AARP, and Optum Labs also ran this study.

They analyzed data from 77,000 to 150,000 people over the age of 50 who had untreated hearing loss. Only two years after the diagnosis of hearing loss, patients generated almost 26 percent more health care costs than people with normal hearing.

Over time, this amount continues to increase. After ten years, healthcare costs increase by 46 percent. When you analyze the numbers, they add up to an average of $22,434 per person.

Some factors that are involved in the increase are:

• Cognitive decline
• Dementia
• Lower quality of life
• Depression
• Falls

A connection between untreated hearing loss and a higher rate of mortality is suggested by a second study done by the Bloomberg School. Some other findings from this study are:

• 3.2 more diagnoses of dementia per 100 over the course of 10 years
• 6.9 more diagnoses of depression
• 3.6 more falls

The study by Johns Hopkins matches with this one.

Hearing Loss is on the Rise

According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:

• Currently, 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children has loss of hearing
• As many as 8.5 percent of 55-to-64-year-olds have loss of hearing
• About 2 percent of people aged 45 to 54 are noticeably deaf
• The basic act of hearing is difficult for around 15 percent of young people aged 18

The number goes up to 25 percent for individuals aged 65 to 74 and 50 percent for anyone above the age of 74. Those numbers are anticipated to rise over time. By the year 2060, as many as 38 million people in this country may have hearing loss.

Using hearing aids can change these numbers, though, which the study doesn't show. What they do recognize is that using hearing aids can eliminate some of the health problems connected with hearing loss. To figure out whether using hearing aids decreases the cost of healthcare, additional studies are needed. It seems obvious there are more reasons to wear them than not to. Make an appointment with a hearing care expert to see if hearing aids are right for you.