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The Hearing-Dependent Daily Activities Scale to Evaluate Impact of Hearing Loss in Older People

¹ Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
² Department of Research, Teaching and Training, Health Care Service of Castilla-La Mancha (SESCAM), Albacete, Spain
³ Family and Community Medicine, Gerencia de Atención Primaria, Albacete, Spain
⁴ Opthalmology and Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
⁵ Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Jesús López-Torres Hidalgo, MD, Gerencia de Atención Primaria, C/ Marqués de Villores n^o 6 02001 – Albacete, Spain, jlopeztorresh{at}medynet.com

PURPOSE We wanted to design and validate the Hearing-Dependent Daily Activities (HDDA) Scale as a means of identifying the impact of hearing loss in older persons by measuring capacity to carry out hearing-dependent activities.

METHODS We undertook a cross-sectional, observational study to validate a scale administered during a personal interview with 1,160 participants aged 65 years and older. When using the instrument to identify patients with hearing impairment, sensitivity and specificity were determined using an audiogram with Ventry and Weinstein criteria as the criterion standard. Standardized audiometries were performed blindly, without knowledge of results of the HDDA Scale.

RESULTS According to the criterion standard, 506 participants had hearing impairment (43.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 40.8%–46.5%). The HDDA scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s =0.91). Regarding hearing impairment criteria, the HDDA scale obtained a sensitivity of 80.0% (95% CI, 76.3%–83.3%) and a specificity of 70.2% (95% CI, 66.5%–73.5%).

CONCLUSIONS The HDDA scale constitutes a clinically useful instrument for identifying the impact of hearing loss on daily life in the elderly, a condition frequently overlooked during routine medical check-ups. This tool has acceptable psychometric properties and high internal consistency.

Key Words: Hearing loss • hearing impairment • disability evaluation • elderly

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