The performance of the elderly with neurosensorial hearing loss in auditory processing tests: a longitudinal study

PURPOSES:

to verify the performance of elderly in tests of auditory processing at the delivery of the hearing aids, after a month of use and after the auditory training.

METHODS:

the study was carried out with 11 elderly people, between 60 and 79 years old, wearing hearing aids, at Centro de Saúde Clélia Manfro. All patients were submitted to Speech in Noise tests, normal or expanded Random Gap Detection Test and to the binaural integration stage of the Dichotic digits test, in three different moments: at the delivery of the hearing aids, after a month of use, and after five auditory training sessions.

RESULTS:

in relation to sex, 7 (63.64 %) were women. The mean age was 71.27 (± 5.33). The average time of daily use of the hearing aids was 10.18 hours (± 2.44), and of sensory deprivation was 5.82 years (± 5.29). All participants gradually increased the scores in tests of auditory processing, reaching better performance after the auditory training, and the comparison between the three moments resulted statistically significant (p< 0.001).

CONCLUSION:

the process of adaptation to the hearing aids as well as the auditory training led to an improvement in speech recognition with and without competing message as reflecting the period of acclimatization after the second evaluation and the effect of auditory training after the third assessment.

Hearing Loss; Auditory Perception; Hearing Aids; Correction of Hearing Impairment