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Hearing aids are an investment in a better future. Maintaining your hearing helps you preserve the quality of your life. We watch our weight, make sure to keep our glasses or contact prescriptions up to date, perhaps get hip or knee surgery if it’s necessary. All of those things help preserve our quality of life so we look on them as an investment in the future. That’s the same philosophy you should apply to taking care of your hearing. The average adult in the U.S. waits five to seven years before getting their hearing issues checked out.
At Fidelity Hearing Centers, we want to help you preserve your quality of life by guiding you to the right hearing aids if they are needed. You should be getting regular hearing evaluations and hearing devices if needed. They are an investment that will pay off.
Benefits of Better Hearing
“Hearing Loss – Numbers and Costs” is a recent report completed by two professors at Brunel University in London. Statistics show, the reports that hearing aid users usually earn far more than non-hearing aid users and the earning gap deepens with the severity of hearing loss. The same ratio applies to unemployment rates. Unemployment rates are approximately twice as high for those with hearing loss who don’t wear hearing aids versus those who do wear hearing aids.
In examining earning power, the report concludes there is “considerable evidence” that people with hearing loss earn, on average, less than those who have normal hearing. Hearing aid users reported improvements in the overall quality of their life with hearing aid use contributing to positive impacts on family relationships. Hearing aids as well as other hearing devices including cochlear implants, were also found to have a positive effect on health in general. There is less physical and mental exhaustion, better sleep and memory and less depression than non-users.
Societal Costs
People with untreated hearing loss have an 83% higher unemployment rate compared to the population in general. People with disabling hearing loss generally retire early or take less-demanding jobs which results in an average income below that of people with normal hearing. Taken as a whole, untreated hearing loss means lost productivity, economic losses and a general drain on social benefits including unemployment benefits, early withdrawals from pension funds and increased health care losses due to depression and cognitive decline associated with untreated hearing loss. There are also more hospital visits, earlier readmission and longer hospital stays associated with untreated hearing loss.
Quality of Life
People with untreated hearing loss experience a lower quality of life in general, according to the report, and the more severe of the hearing loss, the lower the quality of life. Hearing loss has a substantial impact on the quality of life just like any other chronic issues including vision impairment, Alzheimer’s and dementia. Untreated hearing loss has a cascading combination of effects that negatively impact on physical, mental and social aspects of life.
Untreated hearing loss has been links to depression, loneliness and social isolation. People with hearing loss reduce their physical activity which affects their general health and they are more likely to have chronic diseases compared to those with normal hearing.
Some studies document a correlation between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline and potentially the early onset of dementia. Fatigue both at work and after work is a major issue for those with hearing loss. It is exhausting to continually try and piece together the fragments of what you hear to form it into a coherent thought. People with untreated hearing loss generally have more sick days.
Treatment is Cost-Effective
Treatment of hearing loss, either with cochlear implants or hearing aids, turns out to be more cost effective than untreated hearing loss, according to the report. As a matter of fact, weighing the cost of untreated hearing loss to the individual as well as society makes getting hearing aids a great investment with lots of return! This is especially so when it comes to earnings and job productivity as well as quality of life and health care costs.
Better Hearing at Fidelity Hearing Center
Waiting for hearing issues to resolve themselves or just “getting used to having hearing loss” is not in your best interest. Personal losses just keep mounting during that time. At Fidelity Hearing Center, we stay up to date with the latest hearing aid technology and work with the leading hearing aid manufacturers to make sure you get hearing aids that work best for you.
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