Auditory Rehabilitation for Senile Hearing Loss at Our Clinic

Abstract

　 Auditory or aural rehabilitation was performed to improve inner ear and cognitive decline in patients who wear hearing aids and have hearing difficulties. The participants included 10 patients with presbycusis who requested auditory rehabilitation and completed 3 months of training between July 2021 and April 2022. The three men and seven women had a mean age of 81±6.8 years, mean binaural hearing level of 71 dB (quadrant), mean bare aural good hearing level of 63.4±10.2 dB, and mean hearing aid fitting sound. The mean binaural threshold was 35.4±5 dB, and the highest speech intelligibility was 48.3±27% with hearing aids. Cognitive function tests (Raven Color Matrix Test: RCPM, Trail Making Test: TMT), 67-S word chart, CI2004 word and short sentence listening comprehension, and “Hearing Questionnaire 2002” were used to evaluate psychological aspects. Auditory rehabilitation was performed either by individual training with a speech-language pathologist at the clinic or independent training at home, mainly with family members. Individual training was conducted once a week for about 40 minutes. During voluntary training, patients listened to CDs of classical music and speed speech (ear training) and performed oral reading and calculation tasks (cognitive training) daily at home, and the implementation was checked once a week during individual training. Reexamination was conducted approximately 3 months after the start of auditory rehabilitation. The results showed improvement in speech intelligibility with hearing aids, CI2004 word comprehension, and the “Listening to Words” section of the “Hearing Questionnaire 2002”. The results suggest that auditory rehabilitation that integrates ear training and cognitive training to maintain inner ear function and cognitive function necessary for speech comprehension may be helpful for the effective use of hearing aids in communication.