Self-Reported Hearing Loss in Older Adults Is Associated With HigherEmergency Department Visits and Medical Costs

摘要

Hearing loss is common among older adults. Thus, it was of interest to exploredifferences in health care utilization and costs associated with hearing lossand hearing aid use. Hearing loss and hearing aid use were assessed throughself-reports and included 5 categories: no hearing loss, aided mild, unaidedmild, aided severe, and unaided severe hearing loss. Health care utilization andcosts were obtained from medical claims. Those with aided mild or severe hearingloss were significantly more likely to have an emergency department visit.Conversely, those with aided severe hearing loss were about 15% less likely tobe hospitalized. Individuals with unaided severe hearing loss had the highestannual medical costs ($14349) compared with those with no hearing loss ($12118, < .001). In this study, those with unaided severehearing loss had the highest medical costs. Further studies should attempt tobetter understand the relationship between hearing loss, hearing aid use, andmedical costs.