Hearing Threshold and Hearing Handicap of the Elderly with Presbycusis

Hong, Binna; Lee, Junghak

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2002;7(1): 214-233.

Binna Hong^` , and Junghak Lee^`

홍빛나(Binna Hong)| 이정학(Junghak Lee)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the audiometric correlates of hearing handicap as measured by The Korean Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (KHHIE). The KHHIE and audiometric test s were performed on 308 elderly subjects aged 65-91 years (mean age: 73.05 year s) with normal and sensorineural hearing losses. The audiometric tests included puretone thresholds, speech recognition threshold (SRT) and word recognition scores (WRS). The mean speech frequency puretone average (SFPTA) of 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz was 43.90 dB and the mean high frequency puretone average (HFPTA) of 1, 2 and 4 kHz was 48.20 dB at the better ear. The mean KHHIE score was 31.44 (emotional = 15.18, social/ situational = 16.27). Pear son product -moment correlations between the KHHIE scores and SFPTA, HFPTA, SRT, and WRS of the better ear were 0.75, 0.72, 0.72, and - 0.45, respectively. Using a score of 16 as a cut - off point of the KHHIE, the sensitivities were 70.9 % for the HFPTA and 72.8 % for the SFPTA. The specificities was 92.6 % for both the SFPTA and the HFPTA. These results support the finding that the use of self- report measures is meaningful to understand the hearing handicap of the elderly. Furthermore, the audiometric measures alone were found to be insufficient in describing a patient s reaction to their hearing loss.

Keywords: 노인성난청 | 청력손실 | 청각장애