الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 134 |  |  |
| | | from | 134 | | |
Abstract
Elderly people have many medical problems. One of the top three chronic
medical conditions is hearing impairment and it is considered thenumber one of
communication disorder among older people in whom hearing could compensate
for other physical or sensorial limitations. The projected increase in the Proportion
of individuals aged at least 65 years worldwide is likely to be associated with an
increasing prevalence of HI among the elderly. HI in elderly people remains an
invisible disability that is hidden to others. Therefore, it tends to be ignored, unlike
other health problems (Akeem, Taiwo and Oye, 2010; Vos et al., 2017; Wilson,
Tucci, Merson & O’Donoghue, 2017).The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life of elderly people
with hearing impairment.
A descriptive Correlational study design was used to achieve the aim of the
current study the study was conducted at Outpatient audiology clinics at Ashmoun
General Hospital that affiliated to Ashmoun district and Shebin Elkom University
Hospital at Shebin Elkom district, Menoufia governorat. A purposive sample of 270
elderly people who diagnosed with hearing impairment and attending the
previously mentioned settings for diagnosis and follow up were selected, who were
fulfilling the inclusion criteria.
Instruments of the study:
The instruments of the study were two instruments used to collect the data,
about hearing impairment and quality of life among studied elderly people that
included:Instrument I: Interviewing questionnaire which included two parts
Part 1: The first part concerned with socioeconomic demographic data of the study
subjects that developed by researcher. The required data in this part consisted of
Personal history (name, age, sex, address, education, with whom do you live,
marital status, income, occupation, helping from others, type of helping) and grade
of hearing impairment which taken from patient’s medical sheet or audiometer.
Part 2: The second part included older people quality of life questionnaire
(OPQOL-35) SF that developed by Bowling& Gabriel, (2007). It used to assess
quality of life of the elderly; which included eight domain of quality of life. This
domain (life over all, health, social relationship, independence, control over life and
freedom, home and neighborhood, psychological and emotional well-being,
financial circumstances and leisure activities). The OPQOL consisted of 35
statements, That required the participants to indicate to what the extent to which
he/she agrees with each statement by selecting one of five possible options (strongly
disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree, each with
a score of 1–5). Higher scores indicate a better QOL. The total score ranges from
35 (worst possible QOL) to 175 (best possible QOL).
Instrument II: The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly Screening version
(HHIE-S) scale developed by Ventry & Weinstein, (1986). It was used to assess the
degree of hearing impairment and included 10-items questions.
The main results of this study revealed that: -
Approximately three quarters of studied elderly people were in age group
60 – 69 years, most of them were illiterate.The majority of elderly had significant hearing impairment and the least of
them had mild to moderate hearing impairment according to their self-
reported hearing impairment (HHIE-S).
Hearing impairment grades among studied elderly subjects according to
their audiometer. More than two thirds of studied elderly were suffering
from severe to moderate hearing impairment and the least frequency was
mild and profound hearing impairment.
Relation between audiometry hearing impairment grades and self-reported
hearing impairment grades; the current study concluded that the majority of
studied elderly within the four grades either mild, moderate, sever or
profound, perceived that they had significant hearing impairment. This
result might indicate that once the elderly feel there is hearing impairment
even if mild or moderate grades; his/her perception is that he/she has
significant hearing impairment. There was a significant difference between
elderly grades of hearing impairment measured by audiometer and HHIE-S.
The current findings indicated that each domain of quality of life affected
with severity of hearing impairment; as there were around half of studied
elderly people perceived poor QOL in all domains, this domain included
(life over all, social relation, independence, home and neighborhood,
psychological and emotional wellbeing, financial circumstances, leisure and
activity).
There were negative correlation between HHIE-S total hearing impairment
score and all quality of life domains. Moreover, there was negative
correlation between HHIE-S total hearing impairment score and grand totalquality of life score. This means that quality of life gets poor with increased
hearing impairment.
The current study illustrated that more than half of studied elderly people
perceived poor total quality of life based on their scores so research question
has been answered.
Conclusion:-
In the light of the current study findings, the study concluded that: The
quality of life of elderly with hearing impairment was affected or reduced with
increase severity of HI. The most affected domain of quality of life was life over all
followed by social relations because of HI can impair the exchange of information,
thus it significantly impacting everyday life, causing loneliness, isolation,
dependence, and frustration, as well as communication disorders. So that, HI
consequently reported to reduce quality of life.
Recommendations:-
Increasing elderly people awareness about the importance of regular hearing
assessment for early detection and management.
Early hearing screening with high quality screening protocols in the primary care
setting to determine people at risk of hearing impairment.