The Use of Illustrations as an Adjunct to Administration of the COSI with Aging Patients

ABSTRACT

The major goal of hearing aid dispensing is to reduce the perceived handicap resulting from hearing loss. To date, many self-assessment techniques have been designed to quantify the emotional and social effects of self-perceived hearing impairment in the noninstitutionalized elderly. A formalized procedure, the Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI), has been used to document goals and needs and to measure improvements in the hearing ability of adult clients. The major advantage of this procedure is that there is greater focus on the client's individual needs when designing his or her rehabilitation program. Memory problems are one of the common complaints of the elderly. Over the years, research has shown that older individuals have particular difficulty with episodic memory, the conscious recollection of particular episodes or events that have occurred in a person's experience. This is supported by the finding that memory performance of older people is most affected when memory is tested using free recall of studied items, with smaller age-related reductions when memory is tested using recognition paradigms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of using pictures with the COSI to assist elderly subjects with hearing loss in recalling and identifying difficult listening situations in need of improvement with amplification. The study examined the responses of 30 older subjects ranging in age from 65 to 85 years who were all new hearing aid users.

Aural rehabilitation - COSI - hearing aids

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