Use of the open-ended questionnaire with patients and their significant others

One hundred and twenty-one hearing impaired people and their accompanying adult significant other answered an open-ended questionnaire. It asked them to list the difficulties they had as a result of hearing loss. As expected, the most common difficulties which patients report are those dealing with understanding speech, yet these complaints comprise only 58.5% of all the specific responses made by patients. These speech-related difficulties fell into only two of the eight categories of complaints. This would clearly indicate that there are more subtle difficulties occurring that need to be addressed and which would be missed by more standard disability/handicap questionnaires largely based on speech disability. The number of specific difficulties related to loudness of TV and radio and to the psychosocial aspects of hearing loss (such as withdrawal and unsociable behaviours) was reported by greater numbers of significant others than patients. The patient, however, was significantly more apt to list a non-specific problem related to the radio and TV. Specific medical problems were reported by a greater number of patients than significant others.