[Hearing aids among the elderly--not only in the drawer!].

The majority of hearing-aids are offered to elderly patients with presbyacusis. It is commonly assumed in the general population and among health professionals that many hearing-aids are not being used regularly on a daily basis. 83 patients over the age of 70 were visited unannounced and interviewed in their homes. They had received their first or replacement hearing-aid from six months to two years earlier. The main purpose of the interview was to examine to what extent the hearing-aids were in regular use. Nearly half of the patients said they wore their hearing-aid when they opened the front door and that they used it constantly during the day. This was also confirmed by relatives. One of five stated that they did not use the hearing-aid at all, or that they were not able to find it. The majority of users were satisfied with their hearing-aid, and relatives found it to be of great help. Even patients over 80 years old managed to fit their hearing-aid themselves, regulate the volume and change the batteries. There was an even distribution of all-day users regardless of the extent of hearing loss. Whether the hearing-aid was prescribed on the initiative of a third party or not made little difference to the extent of its use. A significant difference was found between first-time users and those with a replacement hearing-aid, replacement hearing-aids being used much more frequently. We conclude that hearing-aids are indeed being used by the majority of elderly people with impaired hearing and that they are of great benefit to them. It is difficult to predict from the medical history and audiometric data of the individual patient exactly how much the hearing-aid will be used later and how beneficial it will be. Patients should therefore be allowed to test a hearing-aid at home for a period of time and to return it if it is found to be of little benefit.