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Abstract
Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the use of Chinese version of HHIE-S as a hearing screening tool for the elderly in an industrial area in northeast China. Design: Prevalence, sensitivity and specificity of Chinese version of HHIE-S were calculated. Factors that had impact on HHIE-S were analysed. Study sample: Five hundred and seventy Mandarin speaking participants, aged from 50 to 85 years were included. They were tested with pure tone audiometry and Chinese version of HHIE-S. Results: The prevalence of hearing handicap was 55.3%. The sensitivity and specificity of HHIE-S were 84.5% and 58.3% respectively when the pass/fail criteria were set at PTA0.5–4kHz >40 dBHL. In general, HHIE-S total and subscale scores were significantly associated with severity of hearing impairment. After stratified by severity of hearing impairment, both the prevalence of reported handicap and the scores of HHIE-S were not significantly associated with age. Male participants had significantly higher HHIE-S scores than female participants did. Conclusions: The Chinese version of HHIE-S contributes useful information to identifying hearing handicap and addressing the rehabilitative needs in the elderly in an industrial city in Mainland China.
Acknowledgements
The present study was supported by Scientific Technology Programme of Ji Lin Provincial Health Committee (Programme No. 2013Z057). The authors would like to thank Prof. Li Xiucang for helping with the data analysis.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.