Perception of Associates and Self Regarding Hearing Handicap above Age 50

Abstract

Individuals with deteriorating hearing due to presbycusis should understand the nature and extent of their handicap. One way to investigate this phenomenon is to compare an individual’s assessment of his/her own hearing handicap with the assessment of that handicap by a spouse or close associate. Various scales were developed for this assessment such as Mc-Carthy-Alpiner Scale of Hearing Handicap (M-A Scale: Mc-Carthy & Alpiner, 1983), Self-Assessment of Communication (SAC: Schow & Nerbonne, 1982), Hearing Performance Inventory (HPI: Lamb, Owens, & Schubert, 1983), and Communication Profile for the Hearing Handicap (CPHI: Demorest& Erdman, 1987).The purpose of this study were to investigate the relationship between the self-report of hearing handicap by a group of older adults and by associates and also to compare the handicap based on pure tone threshold data. Adults over age 50 were selected for this study. The number of subjects selected for the study was 32 (male=19, female=13). The Hearing Handicap Scale (HHS) developed by High, (1964) was used as the questionnaire to assess perceptions of hearing handicap by the subjects & their associates. Statistical analysis of the obtained data was done where the perception of handicap in between male and female was compared through Hearing Handicap Scale. When the data were analysed by gender groups (male subject female associates and female subject male associates) significant difference in perception of hearing handicap was not evident. With the increasing degree of hearing loss the perception of handicap according to the score of the questionnaire also increases.