Treatment of elderly adults with impaired hearing: resources, outcome, and efficiency.

The general relationship between treatment and response is illustrated with reference to the response of elderly people to rehabilitation treatment after a hearing aid has been prescribed. The evidence of the effects of treatment is reviewed and a tentative empirical relationship is proposed between treatment input (therapist time) and effect (hours of use of the hearing aids). This illustrates a rapid improvement in the effect of treatment for up to about one hour of therapist time but very little improvement with increasing input thereafter. The resource implications are discussed and it is concluded that an input of an average of one hour of follow-up would be a very worthwhile investment and should be a priority for expenditure by health authorities.