Essential health information is missed by an estimated 43% of patients over the age of 60, according to recent studies. Important information, when it comes to health care, might be missed because of hearing loss.
There is a Worldwide Hearing Epidemic
Hearing loss is a major issue. Worldwide, a third of people who are 65 or older have debilitating hearing loss.
If we go further, we discover that shockingly only around 30% of those same senior citizens suffering from hearing loss have, or make use of, solutions that would benefit their hearing. When it comes to medical care, this is bad news.
With Medical Care – Communication is Crucial
A major cause of death is medical error and miscommunication is a major cause of medical error. A study from Harvard showed that as many as 37% of serious injuries that resulted from medical errors could have been avoided with improved communication. An enhanced ability to communicate important information with patients could save lives.
How Hearing Loss Impacts Medical Care
Statistics can be a little fuzzy and hard to get one’s head around so let’s consider some significant info you could miss when talking to pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals.
When it comes to reaching health goals, the advice of health care professionals is a vital factor. Perhaps they’re explaining healthy insulin or blood pressure levels. There are particular things that can harm you if they are not managed in a way that your health care professional suggests. Dealing with your condition could become a problem if you miss essential advice.
These medical providers might explain danger zones that indicate that you require medical care. If you don’t comprehend completely what the physician is saying, you could miss crucial warning signs and put off on getting assistance.
There might be crucial details about dangerous side effects of medications which your pharmacist is attempting to make you aware of. You believe you heard everything but you miss an important detail and wind up in the hospital.
Maybe you get a warning about some dangerous activity from your physical therapist. You might suffer a serious fall because you missed that recommendation.
Why Communicating Medical Information is Especially Challenging
Discussing medical information is especially difficult because of a little thing known as context. When you have hearing loss, you use context to “fill in the blanks” where you missed something. Your brain is actually really good at compensating for hearing loss. You might even come to think that you heard something that you really didn’t hear, it’s that good at compensating.
With medical information something as small as a “don’t” or “not” can entirely alter the meaning of a sentence. A danger zone, goal, or dosage, might be
entirely changed with one missed number.
The smallest detail makes a big difference when it comes to medical care. Missing them has been shown to result in medical errors.
Getting Assistance For Hearing Loss
If you’re suffering from hearing loss, you could be missing vital medical advice. It’s time to do something about that and get your hearing back.
