Hearing Matters Podcast

The Cost of Untreated Hearing Loss feat. Nancy Young | Long-Term Hearing Aid User

January 26, 2021 Hearing Matters Season 2 Episode 11
Hearing Matters Podcast
The Cost of Untreated Hearing Loss feat. Nancy Young | Long-Term Hearing Aid User
Hearing Matters Podcast +
Get a shoutout in an upcoming episode!
Starting at $3/month
Support
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

About The Hearing Matters Podcast

The Hearing Matters Podcast discusses hearing technology (more commonly known as hearing aids), best practices, and a growing epidemic: Hearing Loss. The show is hosted by father and son - Blaise Delfino, M.S. - HIS and Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A. Blaise Delfino and Dr. Gregory Delfino treat patients with hearing loss, tinnitus, and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Audiology Services, located in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

On this episode, we interview a current patient of ours at Audiology Services: Ms. Nancy Young. Nancy has been wearing hearing aids for almost twenty years. Her first set of hearing instruments were inherited and reprogrammed for her type and degree of hearing loss. Prior to wearing hearing aids, Nancy reports feelings of frustration and social isolation prior to being fit properly with hearing aids. When friends and family would laugh, she would grow frustrated because she couldn't understand speech when multiple speakers were holding a conversation.

On this episode we discuss: 

  • Nancy's hearing journey 
  • Why Nancy moved forward with hearing technology 
  • What drives Nancy to spread awareness of hearing healthcare 
  • The importance of implementing best practice 
  • Nancy's experience at Audiology Services 
  • Comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss 
  • Effortful listening 
  • Hearing aid pricing 

Nancy has great passion for raising awareness of hearing healthcare. Being a long-term hearing aid user, she understands the importance of visiting an audiologist/hearing healthcare professional to address her hearing healthcare needs. During this episode, Nancy shares her experience as a long-term hearing aid user and the benefits of wearing hearing aids, which include: 

  • Increased speech understanding, especially in complex listening situations 
  • Decreased listening effort in complex listening situations (ex. restaurant, crowds, meetings, etc.) 
  • Increased social interaction/communication with friends and loved ones (when you can't understand what people are saying, you begin to socially withdraw) 

What are comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss? 

  • Social isolation and loneliness
  • Depression 
  • Increased risk of falling 
  • Cardiovascular disease 
  • Diabetes 
  • Cognitive impairment and dementia 

Why you should get your hearing tested every year? 

  • Early treatment can help prevent future issues. Many people will wait until they are having difficulty before getting their hearing tested. The reality is that they have most likely been living with hearing loss anywhere from 5 to 15 years before they take action. Could you imagine living with high cholesterol or high blood pressure or diabetes for a dozen years before taking action?
Support the show

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Twitter:
@hearing_mattas

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

Blaise Delfino:

You're tuned into the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. On today's show, we have Nancy Young, who is a current hearing aid user and patient of ours at Audiology Services. Nancy, it's wonderful to have you on the show.

Nancy Young:

Thank you, I'm enjoying being here

Blaise Delfino:

Nancy, you have presented with hearing loss for quite some time. Can you briefly share with us your background what the profession with which you were in

Nancy Young:

Sure! Well, once upon a time, many years ago, my mother in law was very hard of hearing. In fact, she was almost deaf, so we started taking her for hearing aids when she agreed to wear them. And we learned a little bit about that. And then she didn't pass away until she was 104, and left her hearing aids which of course, I wanted them left with us. And I've heard that they could be reconfigured to fit one of us, my husband or myself, and I was sure my husband was hard of hearing. So of course, we went to the same hearing specialist that we like very much. And guess who was hard of hearing I was he wasn't. And she told me that I was hard of hearing in a level that affected what I did, because I at the time, I'm a math teacher by training, but I took up a hobby known as rug braiding and I started teaching it to women in our home, in Maine. And she said, because you still deal with the population, which is mainly women, and that's the frequency you're missing. It would help you to have these reconfigured for you. And so she did that. And I wore them on and off for years. And eventually, they weren't working very well anymore. And I guess I went to get my hearing checked again, got a new pair of hearing aids and again, I wore them on and off. Because with hearing, it's so gradual that you don't really realize how bad it is, until you learn to hear better. So that was about the general history. Hearing loss takes a long, long time. One of the things that made me really aware of how much better hearing was was the trips I've taken and the fact that we were something called a whisperer, which we got hung around our neck. And even in New York City in Times Square, we could hear what the director was telling us a block away, and I thought, things could be a lot better than they are. I live in a senior residence where I would swear half the people there are hard of hearing. Unfortunately, we do not have a very good hearing situation there when we have group things going on. And I started looking into better hearing aids and I guess what made me come here was we moved from Maine down to Pennsylvania and and I used to travel Landsdale, which was too far away and then I heard about the Delfinos in Nazareth and was extremely happy with my association with them.

Blaise Delfino:

Well, thank you, Nancy, we like I said,

Nancy Young:

I'm not getting paid for this. I should be maybe

Blaise Delfino:

We've got you covered with wax guards. That's not a problem. So Nancy, it's interesting if we, if we bring it back a little bit, how many years ago was it that you wore your first pair of hearing aids?

Nancy Young:

I would guess until about 15 years ago,

Blaise Delfino:

You know, we would still consider you to be a long time hearing aid user 15 years is, of course a long time wearing and using hearing technology. So prior to wearing hearing aids, what would you say your most difficult listening situations were

Nancy Young:

Before wearing hearing aids? I don't know because I missed it. I mean, you know, you don't know what you're missing until you really start to have a hearing loss. The thing that really makes me want to wear them all the time now and the reason I came here was people would laugh at jokes and I got to the point where I didn't feel I could say What did they say again here the punch line. And when people are laughing and you don't know what they're laughing about, you soon start to back into the closet kind of and you just sit there and I'm not the kind that wants to sit there. I want to hear what's going on.

Blaise Delfino:

You are very active in the community. You're very active, where you live, and you are definitely an advocate for those who do present with hearing loss and and this is something that I've learned about you throughout the time we've worked together. So what do you think drives you personally, to continue to raise awareness of hearing loss of hearing health care and if you do present with a hearing issue, you need to do something about it.

Nancy Young:

Oh, when you're missing half of what goes on. We would go out for lunch down where the younger people 78, I'm 88. The younger people where I live live in cottages and they go out to eat for dinner. And they are at a table of about 10 or 12 people. And that's hardly the time to hear and then I wasn't crazy about the food either and I thought, I'm not going to go into any more of these, which ends your social opportunities under those circumstances. That bothered me. So many people where I live are hard of hearing, and they have hearing aids and they don't wear them. And that's sad, because obviously, they're not seeing how well they can work. And what I like about the Delfinos here, you seem to have every gadget there is to figure out a better way for me to hear with some clarity and I like that.

Blaise Delfino:

It's interesting, Nancy, and thank you for the compliment in terms of, you know, we have a very modern office here. And it's really in the best interest of our patients, because our goal is to introduce our patients to a new hearing world in a way that is effective for them for their family, things of that nature. And Dr. Delfino I'd love for you to to expand on this. Why is it so important that audiology practices continue to implement best practice that being utilizing real ear measurement, implementing use of the AFAB, the IOI-HA speech noise testing, because everything that we've done with Nancy and the majority of our patients have programmed in the hearing aids correctly, this is why she is doing extremely well with her hearing technology.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Our decisions with regard to fitting some with amplification really are data driven, the more information I have with what's going on in your ear, the better I'm able to represent that best hearing model in your ear. And so that by doing not only complete audio eval but I also want to find out, how well are you going to do in speech, I found an interesting when you were talking about when you would go to Manhattan and you notice that when they were wearing a whisper, you were you were able to hear that a block away. Those those systems are set up with at that time certainly had advanced technology where the speech was being sent directly to your ear, it reduces the signal to noise ratio. And that's what I wanted to find out when I tested you as well, when we added some background noise, and I wanted to see how that impacted your ability to understand speech. So it gave me the ability to gauge what is the signal to noise ratio, what works best for Nancy, and that has every every influence on how well you are going to manage communicatively what's being said not only in quiet, and background noise, and that's why I'm hoping that's why you're wearing them as often as you are.

Nancy Young:

I do I wear them all day now. Sometimes I forget to put them on in the morning. If I don't turn on television you don't hear anything and then Oops, I forgot them. I'm still pretty good at reading lips. In fact, I do depend on that with these masks. It's very difficult.

Blaise Delfino:

It's all about accessibility, which is very important and I'm curious to know, Nancy, the hearing instruments that you wore 15 years ago that were essentially handed down.

Nancy Young:

Yeah. Well, they were reconfigured

Blaise Delfino:

Reconfigured or reprogrammed to fit your typing degree of hearing loss. What are a few of the differences that you've noticed, between the older hearing technology to the hearing technology that we fit you with?

Nancy Young:

Well of course is much better, but my hearing is also a lot worse. So the comparison is is very, very clear. figuratively and literally big words.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Another sesquipedalian.

Nancy Young:

I wish that the places like where I live would be accepting of what the most recent thing is. I know in Europe, they have something called it goes around the room

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

A loop system

Nancy Young:

A loop system.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Yes. Correct.

Nancy Young:

And I don't think there's anyone in Bethlehem that has that.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

I don't know if there is, but that is an actually an older technology. And it works based upon an electromagnetic field and the hearing aids are set up using their telecoil. It works wonderful with developing good speech and noise relationships.

Nancy Young:

We have a situation where I live, if I may talk about it a little bit.

Blaise Delfino:

Sure, yeah.

Nancy Young:

It was built without an auditorium and that was to be added at a later date. Well, of course, it hasn't happened. And so anything that we hear as a group in a in that kind of environment has to be in the atrium. Well, the sound is terrible. Half the people can't hear it, and half of them can't even see it because of the columns. I can't believe that we elderly people put up with that kind of thing. I think we could go out and do a bit of promoting. I would certainly have it where I am.

Blaise Delfino:

Nancy, that's something that personally I admire so much about you because when you first joined our hearing family, and we fit you with the technology, you've always been active in the community in Raising awareness of hearing health care how can I connect my peers and my colleagues to a better listening and understanding experience? And I think that that is so important because you are a firm believer in advanced technology that is going to allow you to better communicate and effectively communicate with friends and family. And you're, like I said, very active in the community. Do you feel more confident in the listening situations you're currently in today? I know, maybe large groups aren't on top of the list now due to the current state of affairs, but with your new hearing technology, would you say that you feel more confident in complex listening situations with your hearing technology?

Nancy Young:

Well, certainly more than I did, but I love some of the equipment, you have the one where like you said, this is where your hearing should be in, this is where you are, and then you're fooling around on the computer while I'm watching. I love graphs, because I taught math.

Blaise Delfino:

Sure.

Nancy Young:

And I can see where you're putting my hearing of it within the range where the best, you know, where I can hear better. I think the new technology is incredible. And I guess it's only going to get better. If you don't know what you're missing, you don't know what that's for, you know,

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

And that really plays into some of the cognitive decline, not being able to hear and focus to be interactive, certainly dulls the senses, to say the very least, so that by providing them with that kind of auditory stimulus, where they are feeling connected, they're interacting, will certainly help to bolster any of the cognitive decline that might be occurring,

Nancy Young:

They are happier. The woman I brought here, two, three weeks ago, she is very, very happy with what she has. She's having a little difficulty, I think, fitting that mold in her ear, which he needs for the extra help she needs. But she's 95 years old. And when ladies talk to her, and didn't even yell, it was just amazing. And she heard you what you said that was a moment that one that was great.

Blaise Delfino:

And that's a reminder of really why we do what we do.

Nancy Young:

Yeah I can see you can feel good about it. But you do have a lot of technology I've never seen before. And I guess you deliberately well you're so young, you keep up with it,

Blaise Delfino:

Which is again, in the best interest right of the patient to ensure that we're implementing best practices. Nancy, out of curiosity, what would you say to individuals, colleagues, peers of yours, who feel as though they are struggling to hear? What would you tell them to sort of prompt them to, you know, go get your hearing tested because there are so many comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss.

Nancy Young:

I tell them to come here.

Blaise Delfino:

Well, thank you

Nancy Young:

Really I would and I have, it's a personal thing, like dentists kind of, you have to go to a place that you feel comfortable, and they have the latest technology to help you with the best they can for what you have wrong with you. And I feel that's what I'm getting here.

Blaise Delfino:

Good.

Nancy Young:

I think some of these places, maybe they are good, but you have the I have the feeling, they're more in it for the money. And of course, that's what you hear all the time. It's they're so expensive, but they help you, you know, it's what you spend money on. When you get older you don't spend it on right cars, you want the best lease most people do to communicate and do what you need.

Blaise Delfino:

And it's it's essential to because we we firmly believe in connecting our patients and reconnecting them to their new hearing world. So we always say hear life's story, because there are so many different comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss such as cardiovascular disease, increased risk of cognitive decline, or dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Individuals who present with hearing loss are at an increased risk of depression and social isolation. Nancy, what have you seen just amongst your own peer group in terms of social isolation? Do you find that some individuals will begin to socially isolate or maybe not participate as much?

Nancy Young:

Absolutely. Really! Yes, of course. And when when I walk down the halls where I live, of course, I'll call to them and they won't hear me at all. They stopped talking and communicating or doing very much

Blaise Delfino:

And that's something that we again, as as a team, it's sort of, you know, you're part of our hearing family, and it's so amazing what we're able to do with our patients is raise awareness of overall hearing health care, because it's so essential. Not enough people, I believe, understand the negative impacts that are associated with hearing loss. Dr. Delfino, you've been in audiology for over 35 years. Have you personally noticed an increase in education just when you first started in the field to now and how do you think We can better educate current hearing aid users and future hearing aid users.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Clearly there has been a, an explosion of information based upon a number of different platforms that are available to everyone. But yes, there has been more education but not enough. Not enough education is being done. And I think what part of the part of the reason where we're doing this This podcast is to, certainly to raise awareness. In your story is when you talk about jokes that were being said that you didn't hear, and you found yourself backing into the closet, again, creating your own form of isolation. It wasn't until you would gone to a hearing healthcare professional, where you realize, yes, if I'm the one with a hearing loss, I'm the one that needs to help. And so it was that education that started you on your journey, but you already feeling somewhat isolated. I think this continual providing information about technologies, hearing tests, what can be done, loop systems, all those things are going to help with raising awareness and letting people know that there is something that can be done.

Nancy Young:

And I think, I don't think the younger people really know how this affects us. They don't feel it's that important.

Blaise Delfino:

So the goal is the overall goal of Of course, implementing the use of hearing technology is to decrease listening effort, and increase speech understanding. It's interesting, we did a podcast episode with a gentleman by the name of Dr. Douglas Beck, he is one of the most prolific authors in audiology. And he reported that when we talk about effortful thinking effortful thinking can actually be measured through what we call pupil, allometry, where we could actually see the size of the pupils, when someone is thinking effortfully they're putting a lot of effort into their thinking, well, we found the same thing with effortful listening with this concept of pupil allometry, before you started to wear hearing technology, tell me about some of the the instances and circumstances where maybe you felt as though you had to put a lot of efforts to understand what was being said.

Nancy Young:

I just didn't like to be the one that's sitting in the back left out of everything.

Blaise Delfino:

Sure. And want to live life.

Nancy Young:

Yeah, why am I there? Except that I want to know what's going on. And then people get impatient saying, you can keep saying what every time and then you don't do it.

Blaise Delfino:

Did you find that to be? Well of course you are. You are essentially an early adopter. You You see a problem or a challenge and you want to solve that. That might be the mathematician in you. Right?

Nancy Young:

If this has to do with my welfare, yeah.

Blaise Delfino:

That too, your overall health and well being. So when we're discussing the overall cognition associated with and we were just discussing the effortful listening and implementing so much effort, when you are going to different plays, you're going to Broadway, you're speaking with your friends, maybe in social outings. Do you feel as though that the hearing technology has definitely decreased that effort that you need to put forth to understand?

Nancy Young:

with hearing aids? Absolutely. When you don't know what they're saying? You can't really talk to them.

Blaise Delfino:

Dr. Delfino, what have you noticed in terms of working with individuals who present with hearing loss and the effort that they have to put forth without hearing technology,

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

I can really relay a story with regard to my own family. My father was a pediatrician who was hearing impaired.

Nancy Young:

Is that how you got into this?

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

That is one of the influences, yes. And we had noticed that he struggled on the telephone, he struggled conversations with the family, he always seemed to be on edge, because everything that he was listening to, he needed to listen to, with great intent. He was fit with amplification in the early 80s. He actually had two surgeries done in New York, stapedectomies which improve the hearing. But throughout the years, we were able to see this man going from this somewhat angry, unhappy physician to a much more mellow open to conversation. As a young man understand, he was very, very social and the hearing loss had brought him to a point where he was not and having the the surgeries and then finally, the amplification of near the end of his life. He was very social, very interactive. He had a lot to say. And for me, it was one of the greatest ways in which to observe how amplification can reduce that listening effort and allow someone to again re emerge as they were at another time in their life.

Blaise Delfino:

Nancy, out of curiosity, if you don't have your hearing instruments in maybe for a day or two, really my question is, how dependent are you on your hearing aids?

Nancy Young:

Well, first of all, I don't have them out for a day or two anymore.

Blaise Delfino:

that's important, that's good

Nancy Young:

And I go get them, I go get them, I'll say, wait a minute. And my daughter will say, my daughter, my daughter and her husband have frequencies that that are very difficult for me to hear without hearing aids. They seem to talk in a whisper, and they kind of do. But with hearing aids, I could hear them. But so they're always saying, Do you have your hearing aids, and of course, I go get them. I'm not embarrassed at all by it. But I, in fact, not at all, my mother in law used to have hearing aids that were molds in her ear. And they always, you know, squeaked it was horrible.

Blaise Delfino:

A lot of feedback with that older technology

Nancy Young:

See something like that immediately should have been taken care of if it could have been.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Yes, it could have been

Nancy Young:

I don't know that it could have been because it has to be tight.

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Yes.

Nancy Young:

And then it loosens when you chew. And when you talk and as you age, so that you have to know how often you have to go to get that adjusted but I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that. And I was pleased to see that peg had that additional mold in her ear which she needed for her hearing loss.

Blaise Delfino:

Sure

Nancy Young:

It really is remarkable that she can hear. And now the family is making other things available to her so that she's not alone there in the house. Let's address one thing that keeps people from getting hearing aids, and that's the cost.

Blaise Delfino:

Yeah, tell us more?

Nancy Young:

Well, of course, they're very expensive. What do you buy that? So of course, we're getting used to expenses like that because of medicine. Which if you've had any dealing with nursing homes and anything serious, you know, it's 1000s of dollars. So hearing aids, by comparison do not seem quite so wild. But there are places that you know, have you drop in and get hearing aids and they're like half the price?

Blaise Delfino:

Sure, absolutely. A lot of it comes down to the professional themselves. Right. Hearing aids are only as good as the individual tuning them and fitting them.

Nancy Young:

That's what you have to promote.

Blaise Delfino:

What I know that we do here extremely well as we implement best practices, we we treat our patients like they're family, but we also take the holistic approach of we don't hear with our ears we hear with our brain, what's the difference between maybe a big box store and a private audiology practice is that personal care, it really comes down to that personal care. Dr. Delfino, if you'd like to expand,

Dr. Gregory Delfino:

Certainly the the quality of the instruments is vastly different as well. And you can just imagine, with regard to what it costs, if they're able to provide something at a lower retail cost, their, their manufacturing cost is much, much less as well. But that also limits the level of technology which they're able to use. And, you know, one of the reasons why we do best practices. And we do all that testing with all that fancy modern equipment is because we get lots of data and so that again, I know exactly what's going on in that person's ear or a basic instrument, even, what they may consider to be premium, just never gets you to the point where you need to be. And the way that we know that is again, by doing that real ear measure that that graph you were talking about before, that is proof positive that all the testing that was done, that the instrument itself is set so that it is performing at a peak level. That's that's the difference between a big box store and certainly a professional audiology practice. When you go for knee replacement, it's not something you'd have to buy online, you want to find out who's doing it what manufacturer the what is where Have there been any recalls on the product, it's an issue. issue. So you know, your your health is very important, not only to you but us as well. So

Blaise Delfino:

We said this in a in an earlier episode, Nancy, we always say this is that the cost of untreated hearing loss is greater than the price of the hearing aid.

Nancy Young:

And it's a good point

Blaise Delfino:

Here at our practice at Audiology Services like I said, we take that holistic approach, I personally have a background in speech language pathology. So remember, you had your follow up appointments, things of that nature. I'm not just going to ask you Well, how are you doing with your new hearing technology? It's more so Okay, we have these outcome measurements, one of them called the abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit. So it's a way that we can measure how you're doing and how you're performing through your eyes. It's not just an open ended question of so how are you doing? No we have ways to measure how you're doing.

Nancy Young:

There's something else that I didn't mention, and I'm sure you know, it's not the sound level. It's the articulation of people without hearing aids.

Blaise Delfino:

Exactly.

Nancy Young:

That is the main thing,

Blaise Delfino:

Clarity

Nancy Young:

The clarity, and I think that has to be fine tuned, loudness does not.

Blaise Delfino:

If you make everything louder. That doesn't necessarily solve the problem, right. What we're looking for is greater clarity and understanding your speech and noise score. As you present with what would be considered a good speech discrimination score in the Upper 80% range, but as soon as we tested your speech and noise scores, you dropped to about 40% speech understanding, which is why we were able to make a data driven decision and recommend hearing technology that would be best for your type and degree of hearing loss, your social activity level speech and noise score and budget.

Nancy Young:

I think when people have something that really works it's well worth the price.

Blaise Delfino:

You're tuned into the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. Today we have a very special guest, Nancy Young on the show, she is a current hearing aid user and patient at Audiology Services. Until next time, hear life's story

The Beginning of Nancy's Hearing Journey
Why Nancy Moved Forward with Hearing Aids
What Drives Nancy to Raise Awareness of Hearing Healthcare
The Importance of Implementing Best Practice
Loop System
Nancy's Experience at Audiology Services | Real Ear Measurement
Review of Patient Success Story at Audiology Services
Raising Awareness of Hearing Healthcare
Comorbidities Linked to Untreated Hearing Loss
Increasing Awareness of Audiology/Hearing Healthcare
Effortful Listening
Hearing Aids Reduce Listening Effort
Nancy's Consistent Use of Hearing Technology
Hearing Aid Pricing