A hearing self-reported survey in people over 80 years of age in China by hearing handicap inventory for the elderly-complete version vs screening version.

CONCLUSION

HHIE-S can be a useful tool in investigating hearing loss among people over 80 years old, with the same validity as HHIE.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effect of hearing loss on the quality-of-life in people over 80 years of age in China, and to compare the results of the Chinese mandarin version Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) and its screening version (HHIE-S).

METHODS

Eighty-four people over 80 years participated in the study. Both HHIE and HHIE-S were completed, and the hearing handicap degrees were rated according to HHIE scores and HHIE-S scores, respectively. Results obtained by HHIE and HHIE-S were compared. Multi-factor analysis of variance was used to analyze the impact of eight factors on hearing handicap in the oldest old people over 80 years of age, including age, noise exposure, ear surgery, infection, ototoxic drugs use, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, and tumors.

RESULTS

Both HHIE and HHIE-S revealed 48 subjects (57.1%) with no self-perceived hearing problem, and 36 subjects (42.9%) with hearing handicap. No statistical difference was found between results of the functional hearing handicap rating by HHIE and HHIE-S (Chi-square = 1.532, p = 0.465). The HHIE and HHIE-S were in agreement with each other (kappa = 0.772, p < 0.001). All the eight factors had no significance on both HHIE and HHIE-S scores (p > 0.05), except noise exposure on S-score of HHIE-S (p = 0.032), and the R-squares of these factors were less than 5%.