A Community Hearing Conservation Program for Senior Citizens

A community hearing conservation program for more than 1000 senior citizens is described. Seminars about hearing loss, hearing tests, and hearing aids were conducted. Results of hearing tests under various conditions are drawn from a population of more than 500 senior adults. Information about hearing aid use and self-awareness regarding hearing impairment was also collected. It is concluded that senior citizens are very interested in learning more about hearing loss and treatment, but as a group they are reluctant to seek out remediation voluntarily. Thus, it appears that outreach programs are important considerations for serving the ambulatory senior population. It is concluded that it is highly feasible to obtain dependable pure-tone audiometric data in field locations with some minor precautions. In our opinion, audiological services should be taken to populations of senior citizens, provided they can be cost effective. Some suggestions are offered for improving the type of program described in this paper.