Volume 12
Super-Aging, Super-Agers and Super-Hearing: Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser and Healthier
Canada is expected to become a “super-aged” society within the next five years. In 2025, are audiologists poised to become “super-hearing” care experts? 2025 is a super time to transform the old negative view of hearing loss as an age-related decline that leads to more age-related declines into a new positive view of hearing health as a key to healthy aging and even “super aging.”
Volume 11
How Well Do People with Early Onset Hearing Loss Age?
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down for a conversation with a late middle-aged neighbour who has lived with hearing loss since childhood. The conversation gave me some new insights into the differences between how aging adults adjust to late-onset hearing loss and how adults with early-onset hearing loss adjust to aging.
Vision Loss as a New Potentially Modifiable Risk Factor for Dementia
The addition of vision as a new potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia is important for audiologists because many older adults with hearing loss also have vision loss. Reduced opportunities for multisensory integration and cross-modal compensation must be considered in all aspects of hearing care: screening, assessment, recommending technologies, and providing counselling or communication training.
Loneliness is Not an Age-Related Problem that Audiologists Can Solve Alone
Communication enables social relationships. Positive social relationships can have widespread health benefits. In promoting healthy aging, could audiologists do more to overcome the social isolation and loneliness of those living with hearing loss?
Hearing and Nutrition: Why Integrated Care Could be Beneficial
Connections between hearing and nutrition that might be important in integrated inter-professional primary care for older adults may involve malnutrition, obesity, dietary patterns, and diabetes. The connection between hearing and diabetes is also relevant to vision as a key capacity. These connections allow hearing care to play a role in integrated care to promote healthy aging.
Inter-professional Team Collaborations to Achieve Hearing Care in Integrated Person-centered Care for Older Adults: A New Year’s Resolution for 2024
I invite Canadian audiologists to join me in resolving to make 2024 the year to move hearing care into a new era of integrated person-centered, inter-professional primary care. Together we can help older adults to function better by working towards communication accessibility.
Volume 10
Hearing Care in Integrated Person-Centered Care for Older Adults: Can Audiologic Rehabilitation Help in Meeting the Key Challenge Areas for Aging Well in Canada?
With increasing age, it is increasingly likely that older adults will experience multiple health issues, including sensory, motor, vitality, and psychological (cognitive and/or mental) health issues. As audiologists, we can help people hear better and function better as listeners and communicators.
Adaptation and Balance are What Matters
Kathy shares her thoughts on the long-awaited first results of the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE; NCT03243422) study (Deal et al., 2018) which were released on July 18, 2023.
Views of Aging: Positive Beliefs and Attitudes Matter for Hearing and Other Health Issues
One of the most perplexing epidemiological statistics for audiologist is that only about 1 in 5 people with audiometric hearing loss who might benefit from amplification use hearing aids. How can audiologists improve hearing care for older adults?
What About Sex, Gender, Hearing, and Aging?
CanadianAudiologist.ca is pleased to welcome Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller as our new columnist. Her column “What’s new about getting older?” will delve into all aspects of ageing and hearing ranging from health policy developments to neurophysical research on the aging auditory brain.