ATHENS, Ohio -- The winter series of Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine's Geriatric Education Brown Bag seminars will continue Jan. 7 with Roxanne Groff presenting "Hearing Loss and Hearing Aid Management."

"While 10 to 12 percent of the overall population have some form of hearing loss, the problem is felt more acutely in the elderly population. Nearly two-thirds of people with hearing loss are over the age of 75," said Groff, an audiologist with Karr Audiology and Hearing Aids in Athens. According the National Institute of Health, nearly 50 percent of individuals over the age of 75 have some form of hearing loss.

"One of the most significant aspects of hearing loss in older people is the fact that they tend not to want to do anything about it," Groff said. "How it relates to the health-care professional is this: a doctor who is taking care of them for other health issues may be the first person they will talk to about their hearing loss."

For many elderly persons, hearing loss is the result of presbycusis, or the change of inner or middle ear components they grow older. And though this condition is not preventable, devices to restore hearing have been improving. With the implementation of digital technology, hearing aids are now easier to use, more efficient and user-friendlier than ever before, Groff said.

Health-care professionals are invited to attend the seminar. Brown bags are welcome. For more information, call the Geriatric Education Center at (740) 593-2258. Each lecture in this series of geriatric medicine/gerontology seminars is held from noon to 1 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, Room B-9.

This seminar is the third of the winter series. There will be no seminar Jan. 21 in observance of Martin Luther King Day. The series will resume Feb. 4 with "Advanced Care Planning Process: Respecting Choices " by Cathy Ash and conclude Feb. 18 with "Older Adults and Water Exercise" by Beth Vanderveer, Ph.D.

"The seminars are designed for an interdisciplinary audience," said Ellen Peterson, R.N., OU-COM geriatric education coordinator. "Health professionals from the community regularly attend, in addition to interns, residents and medical students. The diversity of disciplines represented by the participants makes for an interesting exchange of ideas."

The sponsors of the seminars include the Department of Geriatric Medicine/Gerontology, the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center and Area Health Education Center and OU-COM.

Peterson said the seminar series was started by a federal grant that established OU-COM as a contributing site to the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center in September 1994 and has supported many continuing education programs. Provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, the grant supports educational programs in geriatrics and gerontology for physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors and health-care providers to 22 Southeastern Ohio counties.