Benefits of Hearing Aids on the Quality of Life in Adolescents with Hearing Loss

Document Type : Original article

Authors

1 Department of Rehabilitation Management, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University Medical of Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD, Department of Rehabilitation Management, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University Medical of Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD in Health Education, Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Management, School of Rehabilitation, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 PhD, Department of Basic Sciences in Rehabilitation, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: During the recent years, a great progress has been made in identifying hearing loss in adolescents and prompt intervention. The effectiveness of rehabilitation approaches can be verified in various aspects including reducing the disability, acceptance, usefulness and satisfaction. The aim of the present study was to investigate the beneficial relationship between hearing aids and the quality of life in impaired adolescents.
Materials and Methods: In the present descriptive-analytical study, adolescents aged 12 to 18 with severe sensor-neural hearing loss, who had used smart digital hearing aid a minimum of one year, were targeted. Accordingly, a total of 61 patients were selected for the investigation. To collect data, two questionnaires were used: The Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) has 24 items and includes four subsets of optimal conditions, reverberation, and background noise and sound persecutors, and Quality of Life Questionnaire of hearing loss for adolescents with 38 questions divided into three parts: physical, emotional, and socio-emotional. Data were analyzed in EXCEL and SPSS 16 software. One-sample t-test, paired t, Spearman correlation coefficient, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used along with the corresponding post hoc test.
Results: In the average score of all four sub-categories and the average rating of total scores before and after using hearing aids, there was a significant difference (P=0/0005). In terms of the quality of life, the emotional-excitement, physical, and social classifications had the highest average, respectively. No significant relationship was then observed between the effectiveness of hearing aids and quality of life in hearing-impaired adolescents in Tehran (P=0/5).
Conclusion: The results indicated that what means as quality of life for adolescents is not only influenced by the effectiveness of hearing aid. Also, the results showed that hearing aids is effective in reducing disability caused by hearing impairment.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Heller DA, Ahern FM, Pringle KE, Change in elderly Women's health-related quality of life following discontinuation of hormone replacement therapy. BMC women Health. 2005; 5(7):1-15.##
  2. Mohammad-Zadeh M, Chabok A, Mousavi-Khattat M, Masoudi-Asl I, Karimlou M. Study of the Differences between Current and Favorite Organizational Culture from the View of Employees of Governmental Daily Rehabilitation Centers of Tehran. RJ. 2011; 11 (4) :83-88##
  3. Vadoudfam F, Kamali M, Jafari Z, Keyhani MR. Comparison of programmable and digital hearing aids benefit,The Iranian Journal ofOtorhinolaryngology.2005;17(41):129-134. ##
  4. Zaman-Pour M, Hatami-Zadeh N, Vameghi R, Bakhshi E. Assistive Technology Needs Assessment from Adolescent Students with Hearing Loss and Their Parents, Ahvaz City-2013. RJ. 2015; 15 (4) :42-51##
  5. Cox RM, Alexander GC. The abbreviated profile of Hearing Aid Benefit Ear Hear. 1995;16 (2):176-186. ##
  6. MadaniR[Standard translation APHAB Questionnaire and Evaluation of Benefit in people with Mild to Severe Hearing Loss [InPersian]..Thesis for master of science in rehabilation manegment. School of Rehabilation sciences, Iran university of Medical sceinces;2008,pp11-42##
  7. HeiydariE[translation and validation study of Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly comparing with Hearing Handicap Questionnaire for the Elderly(Persian)]. Thesis for master of basic in Audiology. School of Rehabilation sciences, Tehran university of Medical sceinces;2004,pp 10-41##
  8. Kohansal B, Khalesi MH, Mohammad Khani GH, Faghih Zadeh S. Comparing Analog and Digital Hearing Aids in Reducing Hearing Disability, 2004;Audiology Journal.2004:13(1):1-9##
  9. Nejat S, Montazeri A, HolakouieNaieni K, Mohammad K, Majdzadeh S. The World Health Organization quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire: Translation and validation study of the Iranian version. sjsph. 2006; 4 (4) :1-12##

10. Usefy R.A, GhassmiGh.R, Sarrafzadegan N, Mallik S, Baghaei A.M, Rabiei K, Psychometric Properties of the WHOQOL-BREF in an Iranian Adult Sample. Community Mental Health Journal. 46(2):139-147. ##

11. Streufert A. Quality of life measure for adolescents and children with hearing loss.2008. ##

12. Amy M, Streufert BS. Quality Of Life Measure For Adolescents And Children With Heearing Loss.2010. ##

13. Sa'adati-Boroujeni S, Hatami-Zadeh N, Vameghi R, KraskianA.[ Developing and Validating a Hearing-Loss Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adolescents RJ. 2013; 13 :84-93. [InPersian]. ##

The Scientific Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine
Volume 6, Issue 4
January and February 2018
Pages 142-150

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 09 May 2016
  • Revise Date: 17 December 2016
  • Accept Date: 12 February 2017
  • First Publish Date: 22 December 2017

Share

How to cite

Statistics