A study of the hearing aids benefit on life quality of hearing impaired subjects

Abstract

Objective: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the hearing aid fitting benefit in 18 hearing impaired adults, with acquired hearing loss fitted with monaural linear analog hearing aid. Design: 38 hearing impaired subjects with acquired hearing loss, from mild to moderate to severe hearing loss ranging, from 20 to 80 years old, who received one hearing aid. Results: the functional gain were evaluated, the average thresholds from 0,5 to 4kHz frequencies were significantly higher with hearing aids. The results of the APHAB revealed significant differences in all subscales, considering disabilities measured without the hearing aid and one and three months after the hearing aids fitting. Conclusion: A significant reduction in auditory difficulties with sound amplification in favorable, reverberating and noisy environments was noted, although a difficulty in dealing with intense environmental sounds were observed.