New research carried
out by Hidden Hearing, one of the UK’s leading hearing specialists, reveals just
how poor Brits are at listening. Almost half (49%) of the population admit to ‘switching
off’ within the first 30 seconds of a conversation, with a quarter of men admitting to switching off in the first 10 seconds
when speaking to their partner.
This aside, ‘switching off’ mid conversation may not always
indicate a boring conversation, but may signal significant hearing loss, which
affects 10 million people in the UK.
“To listen properly
we need to be able to hear properly and there is a big difference between switching
off because something is uninteresting, and being hard of hearing”, say Peter
Sydserff, audiologist at Hidden Hearing. “Hearing loss can have a huge
impact on a person’s social and private life, often leaving them feeling
isolated and unable to join in with life, but this is not something people need
to put up with; expert advice and a simple free hearing screening can fix
all that.”
Backed by Dr Hilary
Jones, Hidden Hearing is launching a Hearing Awareness Month, with the aim of
raising the profile of hearing loss.
“Out of the 10 million people who suffer from poor hearing, at least 4 million are undiagnosed
cases who would benefit from wearing a hearing aid,” says, Dr Hilary
Jones. “Our aim is therefore to reach those members of the public who would
benefit from a hearing aid, by providing 20,000 free screenings throughout
September.”
Missing out on life
The impact of hearing loss on a person’s daily quality of life can
be significant, leading to social exclusion, with 41% of people surveyed
claiming to feel like they are ‘missing out on life’. 21% said that
hearing loss negatively affected their social lives and particularly socialising in large groups was reported as
being ‘uncomfortable’ (41%). 1 in 10 people even said they would ‘avoid social
situations all together’. A third (33%) went on to say that hearing loss affected them negatively in the workplace
and a fifth at home (21%).
Switching off
Switching off is revealed to be a major cause of arguments
with1 in 4 (28%) stating that not listening or mishearing has caused an
argument between them and their partner, and over a third (37%) of people claim to
regularly experience a ‘pretend conversation’ moment, i.e. switching off mid talk
and nodding along and pretending to follow the discussion.
According to the new research, the biggest trigger for
‘switching off’ is highlighted to be moaning, with 58% of people saying they
would tune out if a friend or family member did this. Topics of conversation which cause people to switch off vary with
gender. Men are twice as likely to switch off during a conversation
about ‘thoughts and feelings’ compared with women. This is also true for conversations about
gossip, which cause double the amount of men to switch off in comparison with women.
Top 5 ‘switch-offs’
1. Moaning (58%)
2. Talking about the latest storylines in soaps (44%)
3. Talking about yourself (35%)
4. Work (28%)
5. Household chores (25%)
Denial
With hearing loss having such a negative impact on an individual’s
day to day life, it is shocking that only 1 in 10 seek help from the onset of
hearing loss. Men are worse than women, with 20% of men waiting 5 years or more
before reporting symptoms, compared with just 13% of women. Staggeringly, 15%
of those surveyed said they waited a minimum of 10 years before visiting an
audiologist.
Private treatment news: 5 September 2012
