Acta Oto-Laryngologica
ISSN: 0001-6489 (Print) 1651-2251 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ioto20
Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly S. D. G. Stephens & R. Meredith To cite this article: S. D. G. Stephens & R. Meredith (1991) Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly, Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 111:sup476, 281-285, DOI: 10.3109/00016489109127291 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00016489109127291
Published online: 08 Jul 2009.
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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ioto20 Download by: [ECU Libraries]
Date: 30 March 2016, At: 00:38
Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) 1991; Suppl. 476: 281-285
Physical Handling of Hearing Aids by the Elderly S. D.G. STEPHENS and R. MEREDITH From the Welsh Hearing Institute, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Downloaded by [ECU Libraries] at 00:38 30 March 2016
Stephens SDG, Meredith R. Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) 1991: Suppl. 476: 281-285. In an attempt to overcome handling problems with hearing aids in elderly patients, we have examined the prevalence of anticipated handling problems in this group and their ability to cope with different types of ear moulds and hearing aids. Increased total prevalence of anticipated problems was found only in the 85+ age group, although anticipated handling problems increased markedly in the 75+ age group. Patients over 75 years found it significantly easier to handle postaural aids with modified skeleton moulds than temporary tips or standard skeletons. They also coped less well with in-the-ear aids and failed to show the increased reduction in disability found with those aids in the younger groups. Key words: patient categorization, in-the-ear aids, handling skills.
INTRODUCTION Many older people provided with hearing aids for the first time experience difficulties in handling their aids (1). It is important to define and select a hearing aid system appropriate to the manipulative skills of the patient concerned. Within this context, various systems have been adopted, including earmoulds with handles, hearing aids with stetoclips, walkman-type aids and non-electrical aids. In the present report we shall consider two approaches. The first has been to classify patients in terms of their anticipated handling problems. The second was to look at the abilities of elderly patients to handle postaural hearing aids with earmoulds of different types and in-the-ear hearing aids.
PATIENT CATEGORIZATION The aim of the patient categorization in the Goldstein-Stephens (2) rehabilitation model is to plan the rehabilitation needs of the individual concerned more carefully. A description of rehabilitation types and data on their prevalence in different clinic populations have been presented elsewhere (3). Here we are concerned with the occurrence particularly of the two common rehabilitation types (1 and 2 ) as a function of age groups and the reasons for categorizing a patient as type 2. Both groups include motivated subjects, but type 1 are straightforward and type 2 have complicating factors which may prolong the rehabilitative process. We also wished to compare these approaches with more formalized measures and outcome assessments. Method 202 consecutive patients seen by SDGS in a rehabilitation clinic were categorized into rehabilitation types after clinical history taking, examination and audiometry. They were then classified by age and sex. 41 of these patients were subsequently among the 60 who took part in an earmould handling study (4), aspects of which are also considered below. Within that study, we measured the time taken by the subject to fit a battery in a hearing aid as a test of manipulative skill, together with the results of two formal tests of object
282
Handling hearing aids by the elderly
Downloaded by [ECU Libraries] at 00:38 30 March 2016
learning and digit copying. The outcome measure was the time taken by the subject to fit the aid to this ear after having used it for a month. Results Table I shows the distribution of categories as a function of age group. As so few subjects were classified as types 3 and 4 those were not included in the analysis. Within the age groups the distribution between types 1 and 2 did not differ significantly in those aged less than 85. However, these oldest patients included a significantly increased proportion of type 2 patients compared to the other groups (p
ISSN: 0001-6489 (Print) 1651-2251 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ioto20
Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly S. D. G. Stephens & R. Meredith To cite this article: S. D. G. Stephens & R. Meredith (1991) Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly, Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 111:sup476, 281-285, DOI: 10.3109/00016489109127291 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00016489109127291
Published online: 08 Jul 2009.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 40
View related articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ioto20 Download by: [ECU Libraries]
Date: 30 March 2016, At: 00:38
Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) 1991; Suppl. 476: 281-285
Physical Handling of Hearing Aids by the Elderly S. D.G. STEPHENS and R. MEREDITH From the Welsh Hearing Institute, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Downloaded by [ECU Libraries] at 00:38 30 March 2016
Stephens SDG, Meredith R. Physical handling of hearing aids by the elderly. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) 1991: Suppl. 476: 281-285. In an attempt to overcome handling problems with hearing aids in elderly patients, we have examined the prevalence of anticipated handling problems in this group and their ability to cope with different types of ear moulds and hearing aids. Increased total prevalence of anticipated problems was found only in the 85+ age group, although anticipated handling problems increased markedly in the 75+ age group. Patients over 75 years found it significantly easier to handle postaural aids with modified skeleton moulds than temporary tips or standard skeletons. They also coped less well with in-the-ear aids and failed to show the increased reduction in disability found with those aids in the younger groups. Key words: patient categorization, in-the-ear aids, handling skills.
INTRODUCTION Many older people provided with hearing aids for the first time experience difficulties in handling their aids (1). It is important to define and select a hearing aid system appropriate to the manipulative skills of the patient concerned. Within this context, various systems have been adopted, including earmoulds with handles, hearing aids with stetoclips, walkman-type aids and non-electrical aids. In the present report we shall consider two approaches. The first has been to classify patients in terms of their anticipated handling problems. The second was to look at the abilities of elderly patients to handle postaural hearing aids with earmoulds of different types and in-the-ear hearing aids.
PATIENT CATEGORIZATION The aim of the patient categorization in the Goldstein-Stephens (2) rehabilitation model is to plan the rehabilitation needs of the individual concerned more carefully. A description of rehabilitation types and data on their prevalence in different clinic populations have been presented elsewhere (3). Here we are concerned with the occurrence particularly of the two common rehabilitation types (1 and 2 ) as a function of age groups and the reasons for categorizing a patient as type 2. Both groups include motivated subjects, but type 1 are straightforward and type 2 have complicating factors which may prolong the rehabilitative process. We also wished to compare these approaches with more formalized measures and outcome assessments. Method 202 consecutive patients seen by SDGS in a rehabilitation clinic were categorized into rehabilitation types after clinical history taking, examination and audiometry. They were then classified by age and sex. 41 of these patients were subsequently among the 60 who took part in an earmould handling study (4), aspects of which are also considered below. Within that study, we measured the time taken by the subject to fit a battery in a hearing aid as a test of manipulative skill, together with the results of two formal tests of object
282
Handling hearing aids by the elderly
Downloaded by [ECU Libraries] at 00:38 30 March 2016
learning and digit copying. The outcome measure was the time taken by the subject to fit the aid to this ear after having used it for a month. Results Table I shows the distribution of categories as a function of age group. As so few subjects were classified as types 3 and 4 those were not included in the analysis. Within the age groups the distribution between types 1 and 2 did not differ significantly in those aged less than 85. However, these oldest patients included a significantly increased proportion of type 2 patients compared to the other groups (p
