Quality of Life in the Elderly with Hearing Impairment

Abstract

Objective: to characterize the quality of life in the elderly with hearing impairment attending a family medicine unit. Methods: cross-sectional analytical study carried out at the Family Medicine Unit No. 9 in Mexico City; 60 patients over 60 years of age were included by non-probabilistic sampling. Questionnaires were applied, and sociodemographic data and associated comorbidities were collected; the Hearing Impairment Scale for the Elderly (hhie) was used for hearing impairment, and the sf-12 health questionnaire was used to assess quality of life. Relevant characteristics were compared by gender using bivariate analysis and Fisher’s exact test; linear regression models were constructed. Results: a higher prevalence of hearing loss was identified in men; severe hearing limitation was higher in men than in women (40% vs. 17.14%), regarding characteristics related to quality of life, the prevalence of retired men was higher than in women (68% vs. 40%, p= 0.039), in contrast, women were ten times more represented in housework (40% vs. 4%, p= 0.001). The mean smoking rate was significantly higher in men than in women (6.24 vs. 2.28, p= 0.033), especially in those with a history of diabetes, where the difference was even more pronounced (7.81 in men vs. 1.07 in women). Among participants with a history of hypertension, men also had twice the rate of women (7.5 vs 3.3). On the other hand, women reported higher quality of life scores in both physical (46.16 vs 42.17, p= 0.042), and mental (48.36 vs 43.15, p= 0.45) dimensions. Conclusion: The degree of impairment was negatively related to quality of life, so it is necessary to make an early diagnosis and implement preventive strategies from the primary level.