Identifying hearing loss in Adults

HOW ADULTS CAN IDENTIFY WHETHER THEY HAVE A HEARING LOSS

Various factors can affect the hearing acuity in adults. The most common is ‘presbycusis’, which is hearing loss due to aging. Another factor is prolonged exposure to very loud noises.

The following is a checklist to identify whether you have a hearing loss or not. If you respond YES for most of the following, you need to seek professional help from an audiologist.

• Are you finding it difficult to communicate with people when talking in a low voice?  YES     NO 

• During a conversation, do you feel that speech is not clear and so have difficulties understanding what is being said?  YES     NO

• Do you frequently ask people to repeat what they have just said to you or ask them to speak in a louder voice?  YES     NO  

• Are you finding it difficult to understand a conversation in a noisy environment e.g. in a restaurant?  YES     NO    

• Have you started to avoid situations where you think you are going to have difficulties to hear well?      YES   NO  

• Do you have difficulties to understand telephone conversations?  YES     NO                 

• When watching TV, do you keep the volume louder than necessary to hear it well?  YES     NO 

• Do you hear better from one ear than the other?  YES     NO 

• Do you have ringing sounds in your ears?  YES     NO  

• In the past, where you exposed to continuous loud noise?  YES     NO