NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Hearing aids help to improve listening ability and health-related quality of life (QOL) in people with mild to moderate hearing loss, according to a Cochrane Review published online September 25.
“There has been limited evidence to date to actually show whether hearing aids really are effective,” Dr. Melanie Ferguson of the University of Nottingham in the UK, an author of the review, told Reuters Health by telephone. What’s new in the current report, she added, are the findings that hearing aids provide a major benefit for people with mild to moderate hearing loss, as well as a small beneficial effect on overall health-related QOL.
The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age. About a quarter of people age 65 to 74 and half of those 75 or older have disabling hearing loss, according to the National Institutes of Health, but only one-fifth of people who could benefit from a hearing aid seek treatment.
To assess the evidence for hearing aid effectiveness, Dr. Ferguson and her team reviewed five randomized controlled trials of hearing aids, involving 825 people, performed in the U.S. and Europe from 1987 to 2017.
Three studies looking at hearing-specific health-related QOL found large benefits of hearing aids, with standardized mean differences above 0.70 in each study. Specifically, on the 100-point Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly, hearing aids showed a mean 26.5-point advantage over placebo/unaided conditions, according to moderate-quality evidence.
Two studies found a small beneficial effect on general health-related QOL, and two that focused on listening ability showed a large beneficial effect on that parameter. Evidence was again of moderate quality.
Dr. Ferguson said people who consult their physician about hearing loss are often told their problem isn’t severe enough for a hearing aid, or they are not old enough to need one. She cited an average wait time between first having hearing concerns and being fitted for a hearing aid of 10 years, noting that the earlier people begin using a hearing aid, the better able they are to adjust to it and use it properly.
“That is a really strong message to give to doctors,” Dr. Ferguson said. “It’s also a strong message to give to patients.”
In their review, she and her colleagues conclude: “It is important that future studies measure benefits consistently and report benefits separately for different age groups, genders, levels of hearing loss and types of hearing aids.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2xVZBrl
Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017.
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