Use of hearing aid on the quality of life in adults and device usage problems

Use of hearing aid on the quality of life in adults and device usage problems This research was conducted to determine the effect of device usage on the quality of life of adults using hearing aids and what problems they encounter when using the device. Forty-seven adult patients who applied to the branch of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Yıldırım Beyazıt University and audiologic evaluations was performed and the use of hearing aids was deemed appropriate. 0.4% (n = 19) of the patients were female and 59.6% (n = 28) were male. The age range of patients is 40-88 years and the mean age of all patients is 63,51 ± 14,39 years. 65,9 % percent of patients have bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) at different degrees. The proportion of those with unilateral hearing loss is low and the rate of those with mixt type hearing loss is 8,6% and that of unilateral SNHL is 10, 63%. In the study, Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIA), International Outcome Iventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) questionnaire and the problem of usage of hearing questionnaire as data collection tools were used. The HHIA questionnaire was administered in two stages. The HHIA was used before and after the use of the hearing aid was approved. HHIA questionnaire and IOI-HA questionnaire were applied for the second time after 3 months from the start of using this illness device. In this way, the patient has been provided with an assessment of the degree of satisfaction with the device used and the change in disability status depending on the device usage. Six months later, the problem of usage of hearing questionnaire was applied. The HHIA questionnaire was administered in two stages. The HHIA questionnaire was applied before the hearing aid was approved for use, 3 months after starting to use the device, and after using it. A questionnaire was applied to determine the OI-HA questionnaire 3 months after using the illness device and the device use problems after 6 months. As a result of the study that was determined that all patients with hearing loss had disability due to hearing loss, and that the disability varied according to the degree of hearing loss, the use of hearing aids and the decrease in disability scores, all patients affected their quality of life positively. 63.83% of the patients were found to have experienced to dependent on the use of hearing aids one of their problems on which were frequent malfunction of the device, chirping noise, irritation or pain in the ear, difficulty in wearing the device, difficulties in changing the batteries of the devices. Keywords: HHIA, IOI-HA, hearing loss, hearing aid, quality of life