2024 Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 205-215
During the 5-year period from January 2015 to December 2019, 32 nonagenarian patients visited the hearing aid outpatient clinic of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, to be fitted with new hearing aids, and they were the subjects of the present study. The subjects were assessed to determine their scores on the HHIE (Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly), whether they had purchased hearing aids or not, whether they had family members living with them or not, and their motivation level (whether they or their family members were willing to see the doctor or not). The clinical course in the purchase group was followed for two years after they purchased hearing aids (17 of the 32 patients [53.1%] purchased hearing aids). The 17 patients who purchased hearing aids showed significantly greater compliance with hearing aid use and greater willingness to see the doctor than the 15 patients who did not purchase hearing aids (p=0.046, p=0.031). In the 14 patients who could be assessed by the HHIE before and after they purchased hearing aids, there was significant improvement in the total HHIE score, and in the scores on the social and emotional subscales after the start of hearing aid use as compared with those at the baseline (p=0.011, p=0.007, p=0.044). The results suggest that hearing aid fitting and continued use of hearing aids are feasible even for nonagenarians.
