Age And Sex Matched Data- Two Ears Improved Social Interaction And Quality Of Life

Abstract

Introduction: Hearing aids are electronic devices used by  individuals with hearing loss to improve their quality of  life. It is more useful to use bilateral hearing aids. Thus,  the localization of the sound is better determined and  an additional 6-10 dB increase in sound intensity can be  achieved. In our study, we compared the satisfaction  level of  patients with hearing loss who used unilateral  or bilateral devices. Methods: Patients with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss  and using unilateral or bilateral hearing aids for at least  3 months and whose hearing loss cannot be treated with  medical or surgical treatments were included. International  Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids Turkish Version (IOI-HA- R) was administered to them. Results: Matched data were used to standardize age  and gender between the groups. In high school bilateral  fitting increased. There was no difference between the  groups in terms of hearing pure tone thresholds and speech discriminations. There was a significant difference  between the groups in terms of the mean score of  question 5 (p=0.047), question 7 (p=0.022) and mean total  scale (p=0.028) in IOI-HA-TR. Conclusion: As a result, we found that the satisfaction  level of bilateral hearing aid users was higher. Bilateral  hearing aid use has a positive effect on the social life of  patients and increases their quality of life.