HEARING HANDICAP INVEMTORY FOR ELDERLY VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY: USE OF THE SCREENING AND LONG FORM IN TURKISH POPULATION

¹Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Odyoloji, Ankara, Türkiye
²Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Dil ve Konuşma Terapisi, Ankara, Türkiye
³Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Biyoistatistik, Ankara, Türkiye Surveys and scales are frequently used to determine the effects of hearing impairment on individuals' daily life. Hearing Impairment Scale-Elderly is a widely used scale in the worldwide. This study examines the reliability and validity of screening and long forms of the Turkish version of the Hearing Impairment Scale-Elderly. 147 individuals over 65 years of age participated in the study. Reliability of the long form of the scale with Guttman's formula was 0.94; Cornbach alpha coefficient was obtained as 0.95. A high correlation was found between total scores between screening and long form (r = 0.96; p <0.001). The reliability of the screening form of the scale was found to be 0.87 when examined with Cronbah alpha coefficient. In order to examine the construct validity of both forms, factor analysis was performed using both Pearson correlation coefficients and polychoric correlation coefficients. According to these analyzes, the scale forms were determined to be one-dimensional. Regarding construct validity, the predictive validity was also obtained that the degree of hearing loss increased, the total score obtained from the scale increased. The results of the study indicate that the Hearing Impairment Scale-Elderly is a reliable and valid scale for clinical use. Keywords : Hearing impairment in elderly, screening, hearing handicap inventory