Falls are a significant health concern for adults aged 65 and older. More than 25% of this age group falls annually, which can lead to other complications: one out of every 10 falls results in an injury that affects daily life. Most falls happen due to other underlying causes, such as weak muscles, dizziness or cognitive decline. Hearing loss can be a risk factor for falls as well, which puts audiologists in a unique position when it comes to fall risk assessment.
How Can Hearing Loss Affect Fall Risk?
There are a few ways in which hearing loss can raise the chances of falling in older adults:
- Confusion. While broad, confusion is one of the leading causes of falls. Hearing loss or hearing impairment makes it harder to connect with surroundings and solve problems, which can cause confusion and lead to falls.
- Decreased situational awareness. Situational awareness is the ability of a person to be aware of their surroundings and prevent or manage an accident in their personal space. A misjudged step onto uneven ground, reaching out for a support and missing, and not noticing changes in the texture or inclination of the ground are all indicators of a lack of situational awareness.
- Listening fatigue. People with hearing loss need to allocate more of their brain power to the act of listening. This overexertion of cognitive ability depletes mental energy in a phenomenon known as listening fatigue, and it leaves less brain power available for other tasks, such as maintaining balance.
- Difficulty moving around safely. When a person can’t hear well, they have less perception and responsiveness of what is happening around them. This could cause them to trip and fall.
How Can an Audiologist Help with Fall Risk?
Staying on top of your hearing health will mitigate, to a degree, all of the risk factors listed above. In particular, wearing hearing aids has been shown to lower fall risk. Hearing aids bring many benefits beyond just improving your hearing, such as increased confidence and improved quality of life. Speaking to an audiologist about hearing aids or other hearing health treatment plans won’t prevent falls entirely, but it will decrease the chances and improve quality of life in other ways. Make an appointment with Bangor Audiology today to find out more.