2012 Volume 34 Issue 3 Pages 317-324
The purpose of this study is to develop a subjective hearing scale for elderly people. Our scale comprises seven items derived from daily life situations wherein elderly people are likely to experience hearing difficulties. A pure tone audiometer test was conducted, and the participants’ demographics, hearing aid use, disease, personality traits, affective well-being, mental health, and the subjective hearing scale were measured. By analyzing 186 participants aged 60 years and over, we confirmed that the scale has a one-factor structure and high internal consistency. A multi-analysis using the scale as a dependent variable showed that average hearing level, hearing aid use, extroversive trait, and negative well-being were significantly related to the scale. These findings suggest that this scale is more useful to identify the hearing difficulties that elderly people experience in actual life rather than to assess hearing ability. Further studies using this scale are required in order to examine the impact of hearing difficulties in the elderly on psycho-social factors among the elderly and their families.
