What's up doc? Can't hear you

Now that might be stating the obvious, however it seems that most studies into communication between physicians and older people do not mention that hearing loss may affect this interaction.

A team at New York University has reviewed the published medical literature on doctor-patient communication - and of the 67 papers included, only 16 had any mention of hearing loss.

In four studies, people with hearing loss were excluded, and only three studies reported on an association between hearing loss and quality of care.

In only one study did researchers offer those under care some kind of hearing assistance to see whether it would improve communication. (That study found offering assistance improved patients' understanding.)

"As a geriatrician I see many patients who struggle to hear what I'm saying to them," said researcher Dr Joshua Chodosh.
"That makes me less certain that they are getting what they need."

The findings suggest that research on communication with health professionals has largely overlooked a highly prevalent and remediable influence on the quality of communication.

"It's an issue that's ripe for research: how can we attend to and improve hearing and understanding so patients get the best quality care possible?" said researcher Dr Jan Blustein.

In an accompanying editorial, Frank Lin of the John Hopkins School of Medicine and Heather Whitson of the Duke University School of Medicine noted that the review offers a major opportunity for practice improvement.

"Common sense, low (or no) cost strategies can be employed to mitigate the negative impact of both hearing and vision loss in patient communication," they wrote.

"And some accommodations (eg minimising ambient noise, speaking face-to-face, creating patient education materials with large-print font) are so simple and potentially beneficial that they could be implemented universally."

The review was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.