Two in five older people report having misheard a doctor or nurse in a clinic or hospital setting, according to a new study.

Older patients are already at risk of medical errors, with studies showing up to one third of medical issues could have been avoided by better communication between medical teams and families.

Now, an analysis of interview data collected in 100 US adults 60 years and older has quantified the communication breakdown in hospital and primary care settings among adults reporting hearing loss.

Of these adults, 57 reported some degree of hearing loss; 26 used a hearing aid device. Of the 100 adults, 43 reported having misheard a physician, nurse or both in a primary care or hospital setting.

 When asked to elaborate on the context of mishearing in a clinical setting, the scenarios included (in descending order of frequency): general mishearing, consultation content, physician-patient or nurse-patient communication breakdown, hospital setting and use of language.

“This qualitative analysis confirms that age-related hearing loss has a negative effect on clinical communication across both hospital and primary care clinical settings,” the authors write.

“We recommend that content-related and setting-related factors identified as barriers to communication in adults with hearing impairment be incorporated within a patient-centred approach to clinical communication with this patient population.”

The study is accessible here.