Hearing Loss Could Restrict Mobility & Quality of Life

Hearing Loss Could Restrict Mobility & Quality of Life

When you have hearing loss, invisible limitations can take root in your daily life and greatly affect how you live. Now, a recent study coming out of Finland is highlighting just what some of those limits are. The Finnish findings demonstrate strikingly that hearing loss often limits the boundaries of how people structure their lives and the freedom they have in their motions.

Funded by the Academy of Finland, the research project was conducted by the Gerontology Research Center and handled as a joint project by teams at the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Tampere. Together, the study looked at 848 individuals all between the ages of 75 and 90, mapping their “life space”- the boundaries of where they travel in everyday life. The study included both men and women, and compared those with hearing impairments to those with healthy hearing.

What Is “Life Space”?

The Finnish researchers used several factors to determine what comprises a person’s “life space”, one of the chief parameters used in the study. “Life space” is used to connote where people move in their day-to-day life, as well as how many times they go places, and whether or not they require assistance to move where they go.

These factors together map how broad and dynamic a subject’s movements were and the results strongly indicate that hearing loss contracts a person’s “life space” significantly. Participants who had hearing loss were twice as likely as those without impairment to limit their movements to a small, familiar radius close to their home.

While everyone’s social needs are different, this restricted “life space” mobility can be an indicator of a declining quality of life. Previous research work in this senior age demographic has shown that unimpaired hearing and the ability to access a wide environment are both strong factors in persons reporting a good quality of life. Other studies have established that hearing loss can lead to social isolation and that hearing loss can change the social behavior of those affected by it.

Hearing Loss and Social Spaces

It has long been understood that hearing loss can subtly mold a person’s social patterns. Someone with untreated hearing impairment may find their enjoyment of various activities and locations becomes difficult when they are struggling to comprehend what they hear there. A sign of hearing loss to watch for is if a person gradually forgoes activities they once enjoyed, like dinners at restaurants, concerts or parties, because they cannot clearly understand sound in those environments.

While these signals can be obvious for a lively social butterfly, oftentimes they have a gradual and subtle impact. Hearing loss can carve away at the places a person feels comfortable, just as the confusion it encourages saps the pleasure from once-enjoyed activities.

Tying It Together

The Finnish team is quick to add nuance to their work. Hannaele Polku, a doctoral student on the research team stated, “According to our study, audiometrically measured hearing alone is not a sufficient measure of how people experience their hearing problems and how these affect their everyday lives. For example, a person with many everyday social contacts and communication with others may feel that even a minor hearing loss may affect their everyday functioning. On the other hand, a person more inclined to enjoy domestic tasks carried out on one’s own doesn’t experience the same number of problems due to a change of a similar degree in hearing.”

The hope is to transform hearing loss and its limitations from something that is seen as unavoidable to something that can be confronted and changed with treatment. The study’s conclusions emphasized that the quality of life of a hearing-impaired person has the potential to be transformed with more medical awareness and involvement in hearing issues and treatment.

Custom Hearing Solutions

Have you noticed your social patterns changing because of how you hear? Perhaps you make excuses to avoid loud, confusing environments? If you’re experiencing changes in your hearing, now is the time to set up an appointment with us at Custom Hearing Solutions. Our dedicated team is here to help you get the most out of your hearing – and your life- by providing you with hearing solutions that help you get back in the swing of things. Contact us today!