Abstract

DANIELI, Fabiana; CASTIQUINI, Eliane Aparecida Techi; ZAMBONATTO, Ticiana Cristina de Freitas  and  BEVILACQUA, Maria Cecília. Satisfaction evaluation in users of hearing aid dispensed by the Unified Health System. Rev. soc. bras. fonoaudiol. [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.2, pp. 152-159. ISSN 1982-0232.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-80342011000200008.

PURPOSE: To culturally adapt the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Satisfaction with Amplification in Daily Life (SADL) questionnaire to be administered in users of hearing aids dispensed by Brazil's Unified Health System (SUS). METHODS: Participants were 19 subjects, users of hearing aids dispensed by SUS for at least three weeks, with ages 60 or older, who had post-lingual hearing loss. Sixty three percent of them were male and 37% were female, with mean age of 73 years and mean duration of hearing aids use of five months. Subjects answered the SADL questionnaire and a single-item Satisfaction Scale, besides a few additional items. The internal consistency analysis of the SADL was carried out, as well as the descriptive analysis of the results, in order to compare them to the normative data reported by the questionnaire authors. The relationship between SADL's global scores and the Satisfaction Scale were also investigated. RESULTS: The results for the overall scores evidenced that subjects, in average, were satisfied with their hearing aids. The same was true for all subscales of the SADL, and the Personal Image subscale had the largest number of people very satisfied. The results were equivalent to those found by the questionnaire authors, and the SADL showed a good internal consistency (0.71). The single-item Satisfaction Scale was closely related to the global score of the SADL. For both satisfaction measures, most subjects demonstrated to be "satisfied" with their hearing aids, and there was a high significant correlation between both scales (0.935). CONCLUSION: In average, subjects were satisfied with their hearing aids dispensed by SUS. The Brazilian Portuguese version of the SADL proved to be an effective instrument to assess the level of satisfaction among the users of hearing aids dispensed by SUS evaluated in this study. Further research is necessary to complement these findings.

Keywords : Hearing aids; Hearing loss; Consumer satisfaction; Public health; Single health system.