Hearing Loss in the Elderly: A Proposal for Intervention in Primary Health Care

• Published in: SAGE open Vol. 13; no. 4
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Débora Conceição Santos de, Gomes-Filho, Isaac Suzart, Ramos, Michelle de Santana Xavier, Fonseca, Ana Lucia Barreto da, Marques, Adan Araújo, Hintz, Alexandre Marcelo, Rabelo, Doris Firmino, Figueiredo, Ana Claudia Morais Godoy, Cruz, Simone Seixas da
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-10-2023; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Hearing loss; Performance evaluation; Primary care; Professionals; training; hearing loss; whisper test; elderly
• ISSN: 2158-2440; 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440231206374

To evaluate the performance of professionals regarding knowledge about hearing loss in the elderly, through theoretical and practical training by a speech therapist. An intervention study was carried out with 87 Primary Health Care professionals in a municipality of Brazil. A survey of the participants’ knowledge related to hearing loss was performed using a data collection instrument composed of items related to both sociodemographic conditions and specific questions concerning the topic. This instrument was applied in two stages: before training and after training. The participants’ performance in relation to knowledge about hearing health was estimated by subtracting the post-training score from that obtained in pre-training. Participants were classified in higher performance (≥4 points) and lower performance (<4 points) groups. Other variables were collected: sex, age, occupation, schooling level, and length of professional service in health. The performance comparison estimated mean and the 95% confidence interval were calculated by the aforementioned variables using Student’s t-test. A comparison of these variables with higher performance was conducted using the X2 test with a significance level of 5%. After training, there was an increase in the average performance of about 30% (p < .01). The highest performance was more frequent among professionals who reported having high school and below levels of education (p < .01) and who were community health agents (p = .01). The performance of the professionals regarding their knowledge about screening for hearing loss increased. The training showed low complexity and was feasible for health professionals.