October 19, 2007

During clinic this past week I saw a couple of really adorable little old men! The one had previously come to the clinic and had decided he wanted the recommended amplification. The other man was also new to the clinic and to hearing aid use. We performed a complete auditory evaluation and determined he had a moderate hearing loss. He didn not feel he had a hearing loss, but his wife did. We discussed amplification options with him and he decided to purchase bilateral in the ear hearing aids. He did not seem too happy about the purchase, so I have a feeling we will be seeing him a lot over the next couple of years!

The second man wanted in the ear hearing aids so they couldn't be seen, so I wanted to find an article about perceptions of hearing loss. I found an article about hearing loss- and hearing aid-related stigma: perceptions of women with age-normal hearing. While this research was conducted with women, I still feel it is relevant. In the article, they discuss how hearing impairements and hearing aids are typically viewed negatively. They also discussed that many people reject the fact that they have a hearing loss and using hearing aids because of the stigma associated with the two. The purpose of the present study was to examine the degree of stigma associated with hearing loss and hearing aid use among women from 35-45, 55-65, and 75-85. The results from this study showed that the stigma associated with hearing loss and hearing aid use is related to age. The younger the person, the greater the stigma associated with the hearing loss/hearing aid use. This article was pretty interesting and I definitely suggested reading through it.

Reference:
Erler, S.F. & Garstecki, D.C. (2002). Hearing loss- and hearing aid-related stigma: Perceptions of women with age-normal hearing. American Journal of Audiology (11), 83-91.

Article link:
http://aja.asha.org/cgi/reprint/11/2/83?maxtoshow=&eaf