By Melissa Newell
This article is a part of the November/December 2023, Volume 35, Number 6, Audiology Today issue.
Untreated hearing loss is a known contributor to cognitive, social, and medical declines, which lead to a higher risk of death, with significantly shorter survival time, for middle-aged and older adults (Xu et al, 2021; Zalewski, 2015). Patients with hearing loss are more likely to be hospitalized relative to peers without any hearing issues (Genter et al, 2015), and admitted patients who fell were more likely to have self-reported hearing loss (Tiase et al, 2020). There is a link among worsening hearing loss and poorer balance, postural control, and gait with increased fall risks and higher mortality, but determining correlation versus causation is difficult (Agmon et al, 2017; Borsetto et al, 2021; Jiam et al, 2016; Koh et al, 2015; Lin and Ferrucci, 2012).
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