Hearing disability assessment in evaluating hearing aid benefit

The aim was to study the applicability of an eight-item questionnaire in evaluating the benefit derived from hearing-aid use. Since 1977, 3402 hard-of-hearing patients have been fitted with a hearing aid for the first time and followed up for 3 months in the Helsinki University Central Hospital. The questionnaire included eight situation-specific items in hearing: speech face-to-face, speech in a small and large group, loud speech, in telephone and radio/TV, doorbell, telephone signal. The scoring ranged from 0 to 16. After a 3 months' use of amplification, the questionnaire was completed again. The median (interquartile range) and arithmetic mean (standard deviation) of the prefitting scores were 5.0 (4.0-6.0) and 5.3 (2.33). The postfitting scores were 1.0 (0.0-2.0) and 1.1 (1.17), respectively. The difference was highly significant. An eight-item questionnaire in the evaluation of hearing problems provided a reliable numerical score of disability. Follow-up is important to secure satisfactory results in rehabilitation, especially in old age.