Hearing Loss Among People With Schizophrenia: Implications for Clinical Practice.

OBJECTIVE: The authors characterized hearing loss among individuals diagnosed as having schizophrenia to inform provision of routine behavioral health services to this population. METHODS: Audiometry data collected between October 2019 and December 2021 from 84 community-dwelling adults with schizophrenia and 81 age-matched participants without the condition were analyzed. Rates of hearing loss were identified within groups and across age decades (20-50 years). Hearing threshold and rates of hearing loss were compared between groups. RESULTS: Participants with schizophrenia had significantly higher mean hearing thresholds (p=0.006), indicating worse hearing. This difference remained significant after controlling for age (p=0.01). A significantly larger proportion of participants with schizophrenia had mild hearing loss (24%) compared with age-matched participants (6%) (p=0.002), with higher rates of mild hearing loss observed across all ages. CONCLUSIONS: Screening for and detection of hearing loss among adults with schizophrenia may be an unmet need. Hearing loss is a treatable source of cognitive and psychosocial disability, warranting scalable assessment and intervention practices.