Which sensory perception deficit is often misinterpreted as dementia in older adults?

Moderate hearing loss in both ears can significantly affect communication and social interaction, particularly in older adults. When individuals struggle to hear conversations or sounds, they may appear confused, withdrawn, or less responsive, leading caregivers and family members to mistakenly interpret these behaviors as signs of dementia. In reality, the hearing loss could be causing communication breakdowns and not cognitive decline.

Hearing is crucial for maintaining social connections and processing information. When this sense is impaired, the individual may seem disoriented or forgetful, as they miss out on vital auditory cues that guide understanding and response in social situations.

While vision impairment, loss of taste, and difficulty recognizing faces can also affect older adults, they do not typically lead to the same level of misunderstanding regarding cognitive abilities as hearing loss does. Vision impairment may hinder reading or watching interactions but does not usually impact conversational engagement as directly as hearing loss. Loss of taste and difficulty recognizing faces have lesser implications for daily functional communication. Therefore, moderate hearing loss emerges as a key factor that can be misinterpreted as cognitive decline.