Hearing Impairment

Bent, Sarah; Brennan, Siobhan; McShea, Lynzee

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90083-4_9

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Bent et al. (2019) suggest that 30% of those with learning disabilities have excessive or impacted earwax, compared to 2% of the general population. Twenty‐three percent of our participants had excessive wax preventing hearing screening (as there were no wax removal facilities at the pop‐up clinics).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is this group who are most likely to have sensorineural hearing loss, which is the most common type of hearing loss in people with learning disabilities (Bent et al. 2019; Hild et al., 2008) and yet the type least likely to be detected (McShea, 2015a). However, in all cases where onward referral was recommended, a member of the local Community Learning Disability Health Promotion Team was assigned to facilitate communication between the individual, their family / support team and their GP.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bent et al. (2019) provide a comprehensive summary of the three categorisations of hearing loss (conductive, sensorineural or mixed), depending on which part of the ear is affected (conductive—outer or middle ear, sensorineural—inner ear or hearing nerve, mixed—a combination of conductive and sensorineural). Of these configurations, sensorineural loss is thought to be most common in people with learning disabilities and not only occurs more frequently in this group, but also has an earlier onset than for the rest of the population (Bent et al., 2015, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

An alternative approach for detecting hearing loss in adults with learning disabilities

McShea

Giles

Murphy

et al. 2021

Brit J Learn Disabil

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Accessible Summary Annual health checks for people with learning disabilities should include a check of hearing. However, this hearing check only involves asking questions about hearing and does not include an actual hearing test. We tested the hearing of people with learning disabilities in the community. We found that some people had hearing problems that had not been picked up at their annual health check. We think the annual health check should be changed to include a hearing test. Abstract BackgroundAnnual health checks in primary care include hearing assessment, though current guidance recommends subjective assessment only. Previous studies suggest this is inadequate and recommend objective alternatives such as hearing screening. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of hearing screening and examine the last recorded annual health check outcome for hearing, for those diagnosed with hearing loss as a result of the screening process. MethodHearing screening took place in four locations and 75 people with learning disabilities participated. Contact was made with each individual's GP to share results and to request onward referral where indicated. FindingsWax occlusion prevented screening for 23%. Fifty‐seven people completed the screen, and 25 had suspected hearing loss. Of these, 22 people required referral to Audiology to verify their hearing thresholds. Only 13 were actually referred, and 11 individuals underwent assessment in Audiology, resulting in 10 being diagnosed with hearing loss. The most recent annual health check outcomes for hearing were examined for those diagnosed with hearing loss. Of the records we accessed, hearing loss had not been identified or actioned in every case. ConclusionsHearing screening is shown here to be a suitable method for detecting hearing loss. We recommend changing current annual health check practice to incorporate objective screening. Only 12% of those with suspected hearing loss were known to Audiology services, suggesting a substantial proportion of undetected hearing loss in the community. We found evidence of apparent reluctance around referral and hearing aid fitting and make suggestions for improvement.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%