ABSTRACT
Older adults with hearing loss face many challenges in day to day communication. Although hearing aids come with many technologies and features, the use and benefit are still not as expected. The possible non-audiological factors that can influence the benefit from hearing aid remain uncertain. The present study focuses on assessing the influence of attitude towards loss of hearing and personality on the perceived hearing aid benefit in older adults. Attitude towards loss of hearing questionnaire (ALHQ) and Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) were administered on 42 older adults having mild to moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss, who were naïve users of hearing aid. Two months later, International Outcome Inventory-Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) scores and the number of hours of hearing aid use through data logging of hearing aid were noted. Individuals with extrovert trait of personality and with acceptance towards hearing loss had higher number of hours of hearing aid usage and higher IOI-HA scores. Discussion: The individuals with extrovert personality, positive attitude towards hearing loss tends to depend on the amplification device for better communication and involve themselves more in social interaction. Poor acceptance and negative social or emotional reaction towards hearing loss can have a greater impact on hearing aid use and benefit. The present study highlights the importance of assessing the attitude and personality in older adults with hearing loss before fitting the hearing aid. These measures can be focussed during counselling about the realistic expectation of outcome from the hearing aid.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate the influence of subcortical auditory processing and cognitive measures on cocktail party listening in younger and older adults with normal hearing sensitivity. DESIGN: Tests administered included quick speech perception in noise test to assess cocktail party listening, speech auditory brainstem response to assess subcortical auditory processing and digit span, digit sequencing and spatial selective attention test to assess cognitive processing. STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 92 participants with normal hearing sensitivity participated in the study. They were divided into two groups: 52 young adults (20-40 years) and 40 older adults (60-80 years). RESULTS: The older adults performed significantly poorer than, the younger adults on the quick speech perception in noise test and various cognitive measures. Further, cognitive measures correlated with speech perception in noise in younger and older adults. The results of this study also showed that there was a significant deterioration in brainstem encoding of speech with ageing. Further, it was also noted that the fundamental frequency of the speech auditory brainstem response correlated with speech perception in noise. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded from this study that subcortical auditory processing and cognitive measures play a role in cocktail party listening.
Subject(s)
Aging/psychology , Auditory Cortex/physiology , Brain Stem/physiology , Cognition , Noise/adverse effects , Perceptual Masking , Speech Perception , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Attention , Auditory Threshold , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young AdultABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) was developed in English to quantify the handicap caused due to tinnitus. According to a survey conducted by USA, 40 million people are affected by tinnitus. OBJECTIVES: India being a multilingual country needs to develop and standardize THI in Indian languages. The present study concentrates on Developing and Standardizing THI in Kannada. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Questions from English version of THI were translated and modified by two professionals who have a degree of MA Kannada. Translated inventory was given to 50 native Kannada speakers for the familiarity check & the most familiar sentences were included in the study. Tinnitus questionnaire was then administered, followed by the Kannada version of THI on 140 patients and total scores were obtained. RESULTS: Analysis revealed 14% of the patients fall under the category of Slight, 38% under Mild, 26% under Moderate, 16% under Severe and 6% under Catastrophic group. An item total correlation and Cronbach-alpha test was administered to examine the reliability measures and the scores were 0.883 and 0.885 on standardized item. CONCLUSION: Scores of Cronbach-alpha test shows that Kannada version of THI is a standard and reliable tool for measuring the handicap caused by tinnitus and can successfully classify individuals on a severity basis.
