Nearly 40 percent of people older than 65 suffer from hearing loss, meaning up to 1.37 million elderly people in Taiwan have hearing problems, a survey published by the PSA Charitable Foundation said yesterday.
The survey looked at the hearing examination reports of 9,055 people from 2016 until earlier this year.
Almost one out of every four people older than 65 is hearing impaired, higher than the WHO’s 33 percent average for the same age group, it found.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
The ratio increases to 48 percent for those older than 75 and 71.4 percent for those older than 85, it showed.
The survey also found that men have a higher proportion of hearing impairments than women.
However, only 85,000 people older than 65 have applied for government-issued identification certificates for the physically challenged, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the foundation said.
At a news conference held by the foundation in Taipei yesterday, a 70-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃) said that he became hard of hearing several years ago and that he often has to ask people talking to him to repeat what they said.
He did not seek medical help until his friend improved his quality of life after getting a hearing aid.
After he also got one, he resumed his favorite hobby of listening to classical music with his partner, Huang said.
People might start having hearing problems when they reach 50, as their auditory centers begin to degenerate due to aging and a reduced input of stimuli, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital Cochlear Implant Center director Chen Kuang-chao (陳光超) said.
Other factors that accelerate the degeneration of hearing include excessive noise stimulation, infections and the effects of medication, which in turn affect patients’ willingness to do social activities, as well as their communication and cognition skills, he said.
Hearing impairment in the elderly causes their cognition functions to degenerate 30 to 40 percent faster than other people, increasing the risk of dementia, he added.
People older than 50 should take a hearing examination every year and seek medical help if they find their hearing is damaged, Chen said.
Wearing a hearing aid or having a cochlear implant helps improve the quality of life and helps prevent dementia, he added.
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