Hearing Loss: Why Does It Matter for Nursing Homes?
Ellen M McCreedy, Barbara E Weinstein, Joshua Chodosh and 1 others
PMID 29396185WHAT IT FOUND
National nursing home assessments rated 68% of residents aged 70 and older as having adequate hearing, but this likely misses real hearing loss.
Nurses should check aids, reduce noise, face residents, and use low-cost hearing devices for one-to-one talk.
Key findings
01MDS reports rated 68% of long-stay residents aged 70 and older as having adequate hearing, including 62% of those 80 and older.
02In one facility, MDS hearing difficulty reports identified 108 residents, while other sources identified 175 probable cases, so the MDS captured 61.7% and missed 38.3%.
03Only 9% of residents in the MDS analysis wore a hearing aid at some point during assessment, while other studies found 64% of resident-owned aids malfunctioned and 86% of aid owners needed help.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The national hearing rating is subjective, based on staff and family reports, not audiometry, so it cannot confirm true hearing loss. The MDS may call hearing adequate when it is only adequate for the nursing home environment, where hearing loss is common. The comparison with community NHANES estimates is not direct because NHANES asks about hearing without aids and the MDS allows aids to be worn. The evidence that MDS reports miss hearing loss comes partly from one facility with 279 residents, so it may not apply to every nursing home. The authors say their analysis suggests but does not prove nationwide under-detection.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 68% adequate hearing rate as proof that most residents hear well. The MDS rating is subjective, and the paper says the finding suggests but does not prove nationwide under-detection. A resident may understand quiet one-to-one talk but fail in noisy rooms.