Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Ear Hear. 2013 Jan-Feb;34(1):e1-e13. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e31825f9bba.
The authors investigated the effects of hand function and aging on the ability to manipulate different hearing instrument controls. Over the past quarter century, hearing aids and hearing aid controls have become increasingly miniaturized. It is important to investigate the aging hand and hearing aid ergonomics because most hearing aid wearers are adults aged 65 years and above, who may have difficulty handling these devices.
In Experiment 1, the effect of age on the ability to manipulate two different open-fit behind-the-ear style hearing aids was investigated by comparing the performance of 20 younger (18-25 years of age), 20 young-old (60-70 years of age), and 20 older adults (71-80 years of age). In Experiment 2, ability to manipulate 11 different hearing instrument controls was investigated in 28 older adults who self-reported having arthritis in their hand, wrist, or finger and 28 older adults who did not report arthritis. For both experiments, the relationship between performance on the measures of ability to manipulate the devices and performance on a battery of tests to assess hand function was investigated.
In Experiment 1, age-related differences in performance were observed in all the tasks assessing hand function and in the tasks assessing ability to manipulate a hearing aid. In Experiment 2, although minimal differences were observed between the two groups, significant differences were observed depending on the type of hearing instrument control. Performance on several of the objective tests of hand function was associated with the ability to manipulate hearing instruments.
The overall pattern of findings suggest that haptic (touch) sensitivity in the fingertips and manual dexterity, as well as disability, pain, and joint stiffness of the hand, all contribute to the successful operation of a hearing instrument. However, although aging is associated with declining hand function and co-occurring declines in ability to manipulate a hearing instrument, for the sample of individuals in this study, including those who self-reported having arthritis, only minimal declines were observed.
作者研究了手功能和年龄对不同听力仪器控制操作能力的影响。在过去的四分之一个世纪里，助听器和助听器控制已经越来越小型化。研究老龄化手和助听器人体工程学非常重要，因为大多数助听器佩戴者是 65 岁及以上的成年人，他们可能难以操作这些设备。
在实验 1 中，通过比较 20 名年轻（18-25 岁）、20 名年轻老年人（60-70 岁）和 20 名老年人（71-80 岁）的表现，研究了年龄对手操作两种不同开放式耳背式助听器的能力的影响。在实验 2 中，在自我报告手部、手腕或手指关节炎的 28 名老年人和未报告关节炎的 28 名老年人中，研究了操作 11 种不同助听器控制的能力。对于这两个实验，都研究了操作设备能力的测量结果与评估手部功能的一系列测试的表现之间的关系。
在实验 1 中，在评估手部功能的所有任务和评估助听器操作能力的任务中，都观察到了与年龄相关的差异。在实验 2 中，尽管两组之间观察到的差异很小，但根据助听器控制的类型，仍观察到了显著差异。几项手部功能的客观测试的表现与操作助听器的能力相关。
总体研究结果表明，指尖的触觉（触觉）敏感性、手的灵巧性以及手部的残疾、疼痛和关节僵硬，都有助于助听器的正常操作。然而，尽管年龄与手部功能下降以及操作助听器能力下降有关，但对于本研究中的个体样本，包括那些自我报告有关节炎的人，仅观察到轻微的下降。
