Caracterização dos participantes da reabilitação auditiva na UFRN

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Hearing loss is characterized by a decrease in the ability to perceive sounds, making understanding and communication difficult. Hearing rehabilitation's main objective is to reduce effort and facilitate communication. The lack of therapy service can generate dissatisfaction among users, resulting in changes in quality of life, mental health and cognitive function. OBJECTIVE: Characterize the participants in auditory rehabilitation at the UFRN Speech Therapy School Clinic.. METHODOLOGY: An applied retrospective, descriptive study was carried out, approved by the research ethics committee (5,444,143). Data collection from pre-intervention assessments contained sociodemographic information and the scores obtained in the handicap and quality of life questionnaires, and of verbal comprehension, working memory and cognitive screening tests. RESULTS: Thirteen medical records were analyzed, eleven participants had an audiological report in their medical records, 100% of the participants had hearing loss, however when performing the percentage per ear, 95.46% (21 ears) of the sample had sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), 4.54% without hearing loss, 9.09% (n=2) with mild hearing loss, 31.81% (n=7) with moderate to moderately severe hearing loss and 54.56% (n=12) severe to profound, with one participant having unilateral loss and three with asymmetrical loss. The main complaint was speech comprehension and the skill assessed with the greatest difficulty was working memory, four participants said they had a perception of a handicap ranging from mild to severe and the domains that are most affected by hearing loss are functional capacity and social aspects. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was possible to characterize the participants in auditory rehabilitation so the adult male age group dominated, with greater hearing aid adaptation, moderate to profound sensorineural loss and complaints difficult to understand, especially in noisy environments.