Hearing impairment and quality of life for the elderly in nursing homes

Objective: The purpose of this study is to rind out the effects of hearing impairment, on the QOL of nursing home residents. Methods: We constructed t he self-assessment questionnaire designed for evaluating the QOL for the el derly in nursing homes. The questionnaire is constructed of physical, socia l, communicational and psychological states. It was administered to 60 subj ects > 65 years of age (mean age: 79 years) living in nursing homes, with h earing threshold levels in the better ear ranging from normal to severe and their response were analyzed. Results: Chronbach's alpha -values of the qu estionnaire obtained ranged from 0.66 to 0.91 and was 0.84 overall. The rel iability and validity of the questionnaire as well as its brevity, simplici ty, ease of administration and interpretation, all satisfied its use in ass essing the QOL of the elderly in nursing homes. It tended to decrease the p oints of communication scale, sociability scale and psychological scale (PG C Morale Scale) accordingly to elevate the threshold. As for subscales of c ommunication, hearing disability was correlated statistically to the sociab ility and psychological. Conclusion: Our questionnaire is regarded as a use ful tool for evaluating the QOL of the elderly. Hearing loss affects the co mmunication, sociability and psychological aspect of the QOL for the elderl y in the nursing homes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights r eserved.