Investigations have shown that patient attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids
impact self-reported handicap and disability, hearing aid benefit, and hearing aid
use. The Attitudes towards Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (ALHQ) was developed by Saunders
and Cienkowski (1996) to examine some of the psychosocial factors underlying the use
and acquisition of hearing aids. Here we report data from a new version of questionnaire
(ALHQ v2.1), which examines attitudes towards hearing loss and hearing aids on five
scales: Denial of Hearing Loss, Negative Associations, Negative Coping Strategies,
Manual Dexterity and Vision, and Hearing-Related Esteem. Reliability values, internal
consistency values, and cut points for typical and atypical scores are provided, along
with comparison of the scores of women, men, current hearing aid users, non–hearing
aid users, and paying versus nonpaying individuals. The ALHQ takes about ten minutes
to complete and identifies for the clinician some of the issues that might jeopardize
successful hearing aid outcome.
Key Words
Attitudes - counseling - hearing aids - questionnaire
