Objectives: The aims were to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and hearing handicap between two groups of employees with normal hearing and aided hearing impairment (HI). HRQOL was also compared to a normative population. The second aim was to compare perceived effort (PE) and disturbance after completing a task in office noise between the two study groups. Design: A Swedish version of the short form-36 (SF-36) and the hearing handicap inventory for adults (HHIA) was used to determine HRQOL and hearing handicap. The Borg-CR 10 scale was used to measure PE and disturbance. Study sample: Hearing impaired (n = 20) and normally hearing (n = 20) participants. The normative sample comprised of 597 matched respondents. Results: Hearing-impaired employees report relatively good HRQOL in relation to the normative population, but significantly lower physical functioning and higher PE than their normally-hearing peers in noise. Results from the HHIA showed mild self-perceived hearing handicap. Conclusions: The current results demonstrate that physical health status can be negatively affected even at a mild-moderate severity of HI, and that a higher PE is reported from this group when performing a task in noise, despite the regular use of hearing aids. © 2013 British Society of Audiology, International Society of Audiology, and Nordic Audiological Society.
CITATION STYLE
Hua, H., Karlsson, J., Widén, S., Möller, C., & Lyxell, B. (2013). Quality of life, effort and disturbance perceived in noise: A comparison between employees with aided hearing impairment and normal hearing. International Journal of Audiology, 52(9), 642–649. https://doi.org/10.3109/14992027.2013.803611
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