PURPOSE: to compare the performance of patients who are users and non-users of hearing aids, through the assessment by the SSW test and reinforce the importance of auditory stimulation through the use of hearing aids in individuals with hearing loss. METHOD: the study was conducted on 13 individuals aged between 55 and 85 year old, with bilateral hearing loss, 6 users of bilateral hearing aids and 7 non-users of hearing aids. The applied test was the SSW test. Before applying the SSW test, these people underwent anamnesis, audiologic and otorhorynolaringologic evaluation. A statistical analysis was performed using the Bootstrap technique and Kolmogorov-Smirnov hypothesis test. RESULTS: the users group showed better performance in the studied conditions then the non-users group, especially under competitive conditions. CONCLUSION: the use of hearing aids contributes to the improvement in speech recognition, through the auditory stimulation.
Auditory Perception; Aged; Hearing; Hearing Aids
