Investigating lifestyle factors affecting hearing aid candidature in the elderly

Within this presentation, the authors consider briefly the published data on the effects of hearing impairment on lifestyle in the elderly, and suggest that the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) would provide a framework for standardizing the study of effects of impairments. This is followed by two studies. In the first study, we asked a consecutive sample of elderly patients (hearing aid candidates and users) to list the activities, transactions and interactions in which they participated, and classified these using the ICF. We then took the main categories, and, in a second study, explored how often individuals participated in them, how much difficulty they had because of their hearing loss, and how much they enjoyed them. This highlighted the considerable difficulties that most such individuals experience in common activities and communication situations, and which seem to be little influenced by whether or not they use hearing aids.