Prevalence of speaking and hearing disabilities among adults with traumatic brain injury from a national household survey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide prevalence estimates of the sociodemographic characteristics and extent of speaking and hearing disabilities among a community based sample of adults 15 years and older who have survived traumatic brain injury TBI This report is based on the Canadian Health and Activity Limitation Survey 1986 87 a national household survey of self reported dis abilities Results indicate that adults with TBI with speaking or hearing difficulties tend to be male middle aged and older urban dwellers of relatively low income levels who are limited at work Over 75 of adults with speaking difficulties report difficulty being understood by people outside their immediate family context Hearing difficulties rise dramatically from 75 occurring with one com munication partner to over 96 occurring with three partners The mean duration of disabilities is 12 7 years for speaking and 13 5 years for hearing More than 80 of adults with communicative difficulties have co occurring disabilities of mobility and agility Results have specific implications for functional assessment of adults with TBI and service delivery decision making