Background and aim: Presbycusis, is usually a harbinger of aging. The negative consequences are not limited
to an auditory impairment but influences a range of psychosocial and physical health concerns. The
cornerstone of audiologic intervention is the use hearing aids. Optimal management should include an
evaluation of quality of life (QoL) status and its assessment. Aim of this work: To quantify the quality
of life of hearing impaired elderly individuals (HIEI) and to assess hearing aids impact on QoL.
Subjects: Elderly patients (1 2 7) above 60 years had sensorineural hearing loss ranged from mild to severe
degree of hearing loss, only 24 of them (21.1%) were fitted with monaural hearing aid.
Methods: Each subject of this study underwent basic audiologic evaluation, speech perception in noise,
aided tonal sound field threshold and aided speech tests. Generic WHOQOL-BREF and hearing handicap
inventory for the elderly (HHIE).
Results: There were significant lower aided tonal sound field thresholds (ATSFTs) at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz of
hearing aid users when compared with values of non-users at all tested frequencies. Hearing aid users
perform better in all domains of WHO QOL-BREF with significant reductions in emotional, social and total
scores of HHIE in users group compared with non-users indicated improvement in their QOL. There were
no significant differences between scores of males and scores of females. The severity of the hearing loss
had statistically significant effects on these scores for non-users but not in users group.