Hearing aid satisfaction in the elderly with hearing impairment: A comparison of three different technologies
Rezvan Dashti, Farzad FarajiKhiavi and Arash Bayat
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran
: J Otol Rhinol
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of satisfaction for hearing impaired elderly who use different hearing aid technologies. 40 patients with hearing loss fitted with different technologies of hearing aids (analogue, digital and programmable) were included. Scale Satisfaction with Amplification in Daily Life (SADL) was applied used to assess the benefits yielded by the hearing aids. In evaluation of satisfaction with hearing aid on the elderly groups, the positive effects showed the highest mean score among SADL subscales in both of age groups. It demonstrated elderly groups were very satisfied in this subscale and negative features has the least mean score that shows relative dissatisfaction of elderly users. A significant difference was observed between different age groups in terms of satisfaction rate of hearing aids (p-value=0.02). Patients with different hearing aid technologies demonstrated no significant satisfaction differences. The present study demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction among elderly which were using hearing aids. It seems that satisfaction level in any dimension is not changing significantly by using former or modern hearing aids technologies, except that the former types of hearing aids cost less. So we can recommend these hearing aid types for hearingimpaired aged groups.
Biography
Rezvan Dashti has completed her MSc in Rehabilitation from Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Science. She has published more than four papers in reputed journals.