In a new study, researchers found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, with masks covering the faces around us, it’s impossible to see the facial expressions and lip movements that are so vital to daily spoken communication – a problem that is particularly challenging to people with hearing loss.
The research was conducted by a team at New York University and elsewhere.
In the paper, the team discusses the consequences of face masks for communication in health care settings for patients with loss of hearing.
According to the researchers, communication between patient and clinician is at the heart of medical care.
Even before masks became ubiquitous, people with hearing loss struggled to communicate in healthcare settings, and poor communication was the likely cause of their documented worse health outcomes.
Now masks are blocking lip movements and facial expressions – and these are so important when hearing is marginal. Masks also muffle the high-frequency portions of sound that are essential to speech.
The team says that hearing loss is especially prevalent among older people.
Two-thirds of people age 70 and older have hearing loss. Whenever doctors talk to an older patient, they need to be mindful that they may be having difficulty understanding speech. In the masked era, this is even more important.
The researchers recommended several ways for clinicians to overcome the barriers of masked communication, including simple strategies, such as facing the patient and getting their attention while speaking.
Visual aids, such as whiteboards, can facilitate communication, and some tech-savvy patients may use speech-to-text translation apps on their cell phones. Simple, inexpensive personal amplifiers can provide needed amplification.
Finally, face masks with clear windows are emerging as favored solutions for people with hearing loss and those who are deaf.
These masks are in short supply, and some do not satisfy current regulatory requirements for health care settings.
The team says masks also pose enormous barriers beyond health care settings for those who have hearing loss or are Deaf and use sign language.
One author of the study is Dr. Jan Blustein, a professor of health policy and medicine at the Robert F Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
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