Hearing Impairment, Mental Health Services Use, and Perceived Unmet Needs Among Adults With Serious Mental Illness: A Cross-Sectional Study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-12-2023

Subject Area

Adult; Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Mental Health Services; Mental Disorders (epidemiology, therapy); Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Hearing Loss (epidemiology); Health Services Accessibility

Abstract

PURPOSE: Individuals with hearing impairment have higher risks of mental illnesses. We sought to develop a richer understanding of how the presence of any hearing impairment affects three types (prescription medication, outpatient services, and inpatient services) of mental health services utilization (MHSU) and perceived unmet needs for mental health care; also, we aimed to identify sociodemographic factors associated with outpatient mental health services use among those with hearing impairment and discuss potential implications under the U.S. health care system. METHOD: Using secondary data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, our study included U.S. adults aged ≥ 18 years who reported serious mental illnesses (SMIs) in the past year. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine associations of hearing impairment with MHSU and perceived unmet mental health care needs. RESULTS: The study sample comprised 12,541 adults with SMIs. Prevalence of MHSU (medication: 55.5% vs. 57.5%; outpatient: 37.1% vs. 44.2%; inpatient: 6.6% vs.7.1%) and unmet needs for mental health care (47.5% vs. 43.3%) were estimated among survey respondents who reported hearing impairment and those who did not, respectively. Those with hearing impairment were significantly less likely to report outpatient MHSU ( = 0.73, 95% CI [0.60, 0.90]). CONCLUSIONS: MHSU was low while perceived unmet needs for mental health care were high among individuals with SMIs, regardless of hearing status. In addition, patients with hearing impairment were significantly less likely to report outpatient MHSU than their counterparts. Enhancing communication is essential to improve access to mental health care for those with hearing impairment.

Publication Title

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR

Volume

66

Issue

7

First Page

2450

Last Page

2460

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00385

PubMed ID

37257284

E-ISSN

1558-9102

Language

eng

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