Hearing loss in the elderly: a series of risk factors for imbalance and falling

Background and Aim: The elderly afflicted with hearing loss experience the consequent problems of falling and imbalance. Some reasons have been reported for the relationship between hearing loss and imbalance. However, a large part of the population of the elderly does not experience hearing assessments and if such assessments are done, the right rehabilitation services are not offered. This study aimed to analyze the research information in which implying the relationship of hearing loss with imbalance and falling in the elderly had been investigated. Recent Findings: The search for the information was done for the time span of 1989 to the July of 2015.The result of the conducted search included 574 articles on imbalance, falling and hearing loss. After removing duplicates and review of titles and abstracts of articles as well as compliance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the articles were studied in details. Among the reviewed articles, 36 relevant articles with either direct referring to the relationship between hearing loss and balance and falling or indirectly related matters discussing the issue in other forms were extracted. Eleven articles which have directly referred to the issue have finally been selected. Conclusion: The results of this review study showed that the hearing loss of the elderly can be one of the factors leading to their imbalance and falling.