Teaching Hearing-aid Skills to Elderly People: Hearing Tactics

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Abstract
The effect of a short instructional session on people's knowledge of hearing tactics was tested on a sample of hearing-aid users 65 years of age and over. They had had their hearing aids for 3 months. A questionnaire was administered before and after the instruction session and the difference in score taken as a measure of the effect of instruction. A high score on the questionnaire indicated a lack of appropriate knowledge. Only those who scored incorrectly on one or more questions were given instruction. People were allocated at random either into an instructed group or a control group not so instructed. A substantial proportion (45%) had low initial scores on the questionnaire. The instruction significantly improved the scores of the experimental groups. The differences in score changes within age groups were not significant but men tended to improve more than women. The resource implications of the instructional methods are discussed.

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