Palos Audiologist Trying To Help Patients Avoid Dementia Diagnosis

PALOS PARK, IL — For years, Palos Park audiologist Kristen Conners has been keenly aware of the link between hearing loss and dementia – a connection that hasn’t been highly publicized until a recent Journal of American Medicine published study brought the issue to the forefront.

The findings of the study which were published last month involved more than 2,400 patients – half of whom were over the age of 80 – and that showed “a clear association” between people who struggle with their hearing and suffer from the effects of the debilitating disease.

But for Conners, who practices at Prescription Hearing in Palos Park, helping local residents possibly avoid that diagnosis is possible if hearing loss is detected early enough in the process, she said.

The study, which was conducted at Johns Hopkins University, concurred with earlier similar findings that also showed that if treated early enough, the risk of dementia setting in for patients lowers if they are treated early enough and fitted with hearing aids before it’s too late.

“This study refines what we’ve observed about the link between hearing loss and dementia, and builds support for public health action to improve hearing care access,” says lead author Alison Huang, Ph.D., MPH, a senior research associate in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology and at the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, also at the Bloomberg School.

Conners said that as the connection between hearing loss and dementia is starting to get more widely publicized, she sees more patients who come into her office already aware of the link between the two, she told Patch.

In most cases, patients experience a delay in processing information in the brain from the time they initially hear something being said, Conners said. She said when those delays take place — sometimes up to four seconds — it means hearing is starting to decline, which creates a noticeable difference in how patients are dealing with possible hearing loss.

But when patients are fitted with hearing aids, not only do things become easier to hear, but the response time in which information is processed clearly by the brain gets cut significantly as well, Conners said.

For patients who experience severe hearing loss and may not be aware of the connection between that condition and dementia, being diagnosed with the latter, Conners said, can have a life-altering effect on their everyday lives.

“It’s terrible – (dementia) is an awful side effect that can be helped,” Conners said. “It may not necessarily be able to be treated once dementia starts, but it can help prolong that decline. It’s frustrating because I see this change in patients all the time and there’s a simple way to treat (hearing loss), but whatever their reasons are, they don’t want to feel like their hearing is bad enough or they don’t think that’s what is causing the issues with their memory. And so sometimes, it’s hard to convince people.”

That’s where the increase in information about the connection between hearing loss and dementia can help. Oftentimes, knowing about the link can be enough for loved ones to be able to convince their family member that they need treatment at a place like Prescription Hearing.

Conners said that doctors need to be more connected in ways of encouraging patients who may be seeing symptoms of dementia setting in to go see an audiologist. Once there, a physician such as Conners can determine how much hearing loss is taking place and may be able to slow down the manner in which dementia begins to settle in, especially among older patients.

In one case, Conners said that she had a patient who had been diagnosed with severe dementia. But when family members took the patient for a second opinion, that doctor suggested a hearing test. Conners determined that the patient’s real issue was severe hearing loss, which led to that person returning to the doctor and learning that their dementia was only a mild case.

Conners suggests that patients begin to have their hearing tested around age 60, especially if there is a history of hearing loss or dementia. While dementia often is diagnosed in patients older than that, she said that having hearing tested regularly may help to lead to bigger health issues down the road.

“People know how devastating it is to have dementia and to be diagnosed with that,” Conners told Patch. “So if there is anything that can help slow down the progression really helps.”