A home education program for older adults with hearing impairment and their significant others: a randomized trial evaluating short- and long-term effects

This paper addresses the development and effectiveness of a home education program. The program, designed for hearing-impaired elders and their significant others (SO), deals with communication strategies and speech reading. Participants were randomly assigned to a training group (hearing aid fitting+home education program) or a control group (hearing aid fitting). The training group included 24 hearing-impaired subjects and 24 SO's. Controls were 24 affected individuals and 22 SO's. Questionnaires addressing emotional response, communication strategies and the IOI-HA, IOI-AI and IOI-SO were used. A repeated measures analysis of variance was applied to test group differences between pre, post, and 6-months follow-up measures. Increased awareness of benefits of speech reading and improved interaction with the SO were observed in the training group only (p < 0.05). No group difference on 'emotional response' was found. IOI-AI and IOI-SO demonstrated favorable attitudes towards the program. Follow-up measures showed improved quality of life and satisfaction in the training group, while a decrease was observed among the controls (p < 0.05). Some effects differed between first-time and experienced hearing aid users. Addition of services to amplification and involvement of the SO are relevant in aural rehabilitation.