Investigation of the quality of hearing aid provision in seniors considering cognitive functions

Abstract

In the group of people over the age of 65, hearing loss is one of the most common health problems. To maintain communication skills in this population, adequate hearing aid fitting is essential. The aim of the present study is to review the quality of hearing aid provision in the elderly. Furthermore, the influence of age and cognitive performance on speech perception should be considered. Forty subjects between the ages of 66 and 88 years were examined with unilateral or bilateral hearing aids. Average hearing loss (frequencies 0.5-1-2-4 kHz), averaged high-frequency hearing loss (frequencies 2-4-6 kHz), maximum monosyllable recognition score (German: maximales Einsilberverstehen, mEV) and aided speech intelligibility at 65 dB HL speech level were considered. To determine the potential cognitive impact on speech perception, a screening for dementia (DemTect test) and a working memory test were used. Although hearing aids showed benefit in 82% of the reviewed cases, an improvement of at least 20% compared with the unaided condition as required by the German "Hilfsmittelrichtlinie" was not achieved in 56% of the cases. Individual mEV with a maximum standard deviation of 10 % was not achieved in 81 % of the cases.Correlations between working memory performance or DemTect-test score and mEV were not of significance. Mild cognitive impairment and degraded working memory or age did not affect speech perception with hearing aids in our study cohort.