Hearing aids may enhance elderly persons’ balance, according to studies. The data supports the concept that improving hearing in the elderly may reduce their chance of falling. Therefore, the need for hearing aids Singapore is increasing, and they are no longer a luxury, they are gradually becoming a necessity.
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, report findings in The Laryngoscope journal. Hearing aides appeared to help elderly people’s balance.
Fourteen participants between the ages of 65 and 91 were included in the study. Using conventional balance tests, the participants’ postural balance was assessed both with and without their hearing aids.
According to the study’s senior author and professor of otolaryngology at the School of Medicine Timothy E. Hullar, they don’t believe hearing aids enhanced the patients’ balance. Participants “appeared to use sound from hearing aids as auditory landmarks or reference points to maintain balance,” he says.
Professor Hullar likens it to how we use our sight to determine our location in space. We tend to sway more when the lights are out than we can see. According to this study, opening your ears may also provide information about your equilibrium, he adds.
The First research to demonstrate that sound directly supports postural stability
Despite its modest size, the study appears to be the first to demonstrate that sound, as opposed to the inner ear’s balancing system, aids in maintaining postural stability. The researchers played white noise in the background as the subjects conducted balancing tests with and without their hearing aids. White noise sounds a little like radio static.
One test asked respondents to stand on a foam cushion with their feet touching and eyes covered. In a more demanding test, individuals stood heel-to-toe with their eyes covered.
The researchers evaluated the length of time the individuals could maintain these postures without shifting their weight or adjusting their balance.
More improvement seen in those who found it harder to maintain stability.
Whether their hearing aids were on or not, some of the individuals could remain still on the pad for 30 seconds or more, which is believed to be typical. However, the individuals who had trouble staying still for so long did better when their hearing aids were on. Additionally, the more difficult test showed a more considerable improvement in balance.
The average stability time throughout the foam pad test was 17 seconds without hearing aids and about 26 seconds with them in place.
The individuals could maintain their balance for an average of 5 seconds with their hearing aids off and 10 seconds on during the more difficult heel-to-toe test. Despite the small number of participants in the experiment, the authors remark that these changes are statistically significant. They admit that one research flaw was that individuals could detect when their hearing aids were on and off, which may have impacted the findings.
The participants occasionally conducted the tests with their hearing aids off and then back on, and sometimes it was the other way around. This was done to counteract this. No established pattern existed.
Prof. Hullar points out that this was a little research and should be replicated in a much more extensive study, for which funding is being sought.
According to Medical News Today, engineers were working on a new form of hearing aids Singapore that mimics a fly’s ability to distinguish stimuli.
Article posted at Visits Times
