| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 公共衛生碩士學位學程 === 105 === Background: Hearing impairment is common in the middle-aged and older adults. It has negative relationships with the quality of life (QOL) and physical-mental health, and makes older adults vulnerable to social isolation, depression, anxiety and even leads to decreased activities of daily living. The prevalence of hearing impairment in Taiwan is gradually increasing, about 40% of the elderly have hearing impairment affecting the communication. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the digital hearing aid fitting and the QOL of the middle-aged and older hearing-impaired adults through the domestic common hearing rehabilitation model.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we sampled the middle-aged and older patients with hearing impairment in a regional hospital and cooperative auditory centers during April 29 to November 10, 2016. We use the World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale BREF Taiwan version (WHOQOL-BREF) and Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening Version (HHIE-S) to collect data. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 18 software. Descriptive analysis was used for sociodemographic data, hearing status, HHIE-S scale, and quality of life. Further, bivariate analysis was used to explore the factors related with the QOL. Finally, the regression model was used to analyze the relationship between digital hearing aid fitting and QOL in each domain.
Results: A total of 57 valid questionnaires (76.9%) were collected and 21 (36.8%) wearing digital hearing aids. The HHIE-S scale was significantly lower in those who wearing hearing aids, and the hearing aids fitting has positive correlation with the environment and environment (TW) domains QOL. Under digital hearing aid fitting, middle-aged and older adults with hearing impairment perceive better residential safety, home environment quality and chance for participating in leisure activities. They also have better access to enjoy the desirable food. After controlling all the relevant factors, the hearing aid fitting has significant positive correlation with the QOL in environment (TW) domain.
Conclusions: The digital hearing aid fittig could improve the environment domain QOL among the middle-aged and older adults with hearing impairment. Environment domain QOL are especially important for promoting older adults’ maintaining physical activities, social participation, and the chance of active ageing. Thus, while facing the challenge of fast population ageing, which envision high level of hearing-related problems and associated disaiblities in Taiwan, exploratiing the role of hearing aids fitting for the environmental accecibilities in the process of healthy ageing is warrented . In addition, this study also proposed to use the WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version to assess the QOL and hearing aids fitting effect in the middle-aged and older adults with hearing impairment. This scale could be used as future cross-disease cost-effective assessment tools.
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