Iris Publishers-Open access Journal of Nursing & Care | Perceived Hearing Handicap and Social Isolation Among Elderly with Hearing Impairment Attending Zagazig University Hospitals

Authored by Eman Shokry Abd Allah

The ability to interact with others, and perceive dangers depends momentously on the capacity to hear. Lack of social networking has detrimental influences on older adults’ health in a complex dynamic manner. Hereafter, the current study aimed to assess self-perceived hearing handicap and social isolation among the elderly with hearing impairment. Subsequently, a cross-sectional descriptive research design was opted, where the study enrolled a purposive sample of 130 elderly attending the auditory unit at Zagazig University Hospitals, Egypt. The data collected pertained to demographic and hearing characteristics, Lubben Social Network Scale-revised [LSNS-R], and Hearing Handicap Inventory Elderly-Screening version [HHIE-S]. Data analysis results revealed that 80.8% reported low self- perceived hearing handicap and 77.7% experienced low social networking. Taken as a whole, LSNS-R and HHIE-S were significantly related to hearing impairment level. Henceforth, early picking up of socially isolated elderly and developing effective interventions to reduce it is of the utmost importance. Hearing impairment (HI) afflicted a noteworthy and growing percentage of the adult population. Overall hearing impairment and disabling Hearing Impairment affects Egyptian people by prevalence rates of 16.0% & 2.9% respectively according to National household survey in randomly selected governorates in Egypt [1]. The prevalence is expected to increase with an aging population. Where the number of old people reached 946.469 million in 2018 (6.7%) of the total Egyptian population.

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