[Auditory rehabilitation programmes for adults: what do we know about their effectiveness?]

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Hearing loss ranks third among the health conditions that involve disability-adjusted life years. Hearing aids are the most commonly used treatment option in people with hearing loss. However, a number of auditory rehabilitation programmes have been developed with the aim of improving communicative abilities in people with hearing loss. The objective of this review was to determine the effectiveness of auditory rehabilitation programmes focused on communication strategies.

Material and methods: This was a narrative revision. A literature search using PUBMED was carried out. This search included systematic reviews investigating the effectiveness of auditory training and individual and group auditory rehabilitation programmes with the main focus on counselling and communicative strategies for adults with hearing loss. Each study was analysed in terms of the type of intervention used and the results obtained.

Results: Three articles were identified: one article about the effectiveness of auditory training programmes and 2 systematic reviews that investigated the effectiveness of communicative programmes in adults with hearing loss. The "Active Communication Education" programme appears to be an effective group programme of auditory rehabilitation that may be used with older Spanish-speaking adults.

Conclusions: The utility of hearing aid fitting and communicative programmes as rehabilitation options are associated with improvements in social participation and quality of life in patients with hearing loss, especially group auditory rehabilitation programmes, which seem to have good potential for reducing activity limitations and social participation restrictions, and thus for improving patient quality of life.

Keywords: Adherence; Adherencia; Audífonos; Calidad de vida; Hearing aids; Hearing loss; Hipoacusia; Quality of life; Rehabilitación; Rehabilitation.