Hearing research of the aged and improving the quality of life of people with communication disabilities is the focus of the University of Queensland's new Communication Disability in Ageing Research Unit, to be launched on Monday, October 6.
The Unit, which is part of the Speech Pathology and Audiology Department, co-ordinates research and programs to prevent communication disabilities.
It also aims to improve the understanding of hearing disabilities and treatment of people with such disabilities and to maximise the performance in speech perception from hearing aids.
Unit director and speech pathologist Dr Linda Worrall said genetics, the environment and the general health of an individual influenced hearing loss.
For example, research on the hearing of people in remote communities such as non-industrialised areas of the Pacific Islands has found their hearing is much better than that of people living in industrialised societies, according to Dr Worrall.
Her study of 500 urban and rural nursing home residents in Queensland found that 98 percent of nursing home residents have a least one communication disorder compared to about 50 percent of the over-60s age group in the general community.
Dr Worrall said nursing home residents' hearing loss was much higher because residents usually were more frail than their contemporaries in the general community.
'In addition, nursing homes often are not noise-friendly environments and their design and management may not be conducive to promoting communication between residents,' she said.
'Nursing homes often have linoleum floor coverings which do not reduce noise as well as carpet, and common rooms may have the television and radio on simultaneously.
'Often residents sit in chairs aside by side which prevents face-to-face communication.
'Added to these problems are ageing-related factors such as loss of sight which prevents older people from lip-reading, and dementia.'
The hearing health of 100 elderly participants has been assessed over the past five years as part of the Department's Keep in Talking program, which encourages communication as a way of preventing communication disabilities.
'We encourage participants to have regular hearing and sight check-ups, maintain social contacts and seek additional assistance,' Dr Worrall said.
'As a person's hearing deteriorates they tend to withdraw from social occasions. This creates a catch-22 situation because the less people use communication skills the worse they become.
'However, hearing loss in older people is not a benign problem and not everybody loses their hearing as they get older.'
Dr Worrall has also established a program which aims to improve the quality of life and lessen communication disabilities of persons with aphasia, a language disorder which commonly occurs following a stroke.
About 20 people with aphasia visit the University each week to participate in the intervention program.
Other members of the Unit are audiologists Dr Louise Hickson and Christopher Lind and speech pathologist Bronwyn Davidson.
Dr Hickson said her National Health and Medical Research Council-funded research aimed to maximise the performance in speech perception from hearing aids.
'Hearing aids help people up to a point but the message received is still not as clear as we'd like it to be. However, with digital technology, smaller devices, and remote volume controls, hearing aids have become more palatable to the general community,' Dr Hickson said.
- Volunteers are needed for the aphasia study and research on aged people with hearing impairment. Those interested should contact the Unit (telephone 07 3365 2870).
For more information, contact Dr Worrall (telephone (07) 3365 2891)
