Investigation of screening characteristics of the Hearing Self-Assessment Questionnaire

What is it about?

The aim of this paper was to compare different audiological measurements with the results of a 10-item Likert-type questionnaire named the Hearing Self-Assessment Questionnaire (HSAQ) in order to investigate its screening characteristics.

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Why is it important?

Hearing loss is a very common chronic condition among the adult population that can have potentially handicapping effects, yet it often goes unrecognized. The longer hearing loss remains undetected, the greater is its impact on communication and social life. Therefore, easy-to-use, reliable and valid screening instruments are needed in primary medical care settings in order to shorten the time between the onset of changes in hearing and intervention (hearing aid fitting and counselling). Given the simplicity with which the HSAQ is administered and its good screening properties, the HSAQ can be very useful in helping primary care practitioners make decisions about referrals of adult clients for audiological evaluation due to reasonable suspicion of hearing loss.