Archives of Acoustics, 43, 3, pp. 531–536, 2018
10.24425/123924

Investigation of the Acoustical Environment of the Elderly’s Living Place

Youjie ZENG
South China University of Technology
China

Jianxin PENG
South China University of Technology
China

Lei ZHAO
South China University of Technology
China

A questionnaire survey was conducted in the residential quarters of Guangzhou, for which 582 elderly people over 60 years old were randomly recruited. The hearing impairment of the participants was evaluated using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE), The participants’ subjective responses to the acoustical environment of their living place and the impact of the living acoustical environment (LAE) on the participants were investigated. The results show that the participants with a low HHIE score and no hearing impairment evaluated their LAE more favourably, and they considered that the effect of the LAE on their daily life was weak. However, those with a high HHIE score and severe hearing impairment evaluated their LAE poorly, and considered its effect on their daily lives to be significant. For the elderly, the worse the hearing is, the higher their demand for a better LAE. Traffic, construction, residential quarters, and noise from next door or upstairs neighbours were the main noise sources in the elderly’s living places, and traffic noise, construction noise, and noise from next door and upstairs were the most influential sources. 28.9% of the respondents had trouble hearing what their family said in their living place. The elderly without hearing impairment considered that continuous noise was the main reason that they could not hear what their family said in their living place, while those with hearing impairment believed that their own hearing problem was a contributing factor.
Keywords: elderly; hearing impairment; living space; acoustical environment; noise
Full Text: PDF
Copyright © Polish Academy of Sciences & Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT PAN).

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1989), Guidelines for the identification of hearing impairment /handicap in adult/elderly persons, Asha, 31, 8, 51–63.

An Q.Z., Ma J., Jiang H., Shang Y.Y. (2015), Survey of quality of life of elderly patients with hearing impairment [in Chinese], Chinese Nursing Research, 30, 1749–1751.

Calviti K.C.D.F.K., Pereira L. (2009), Sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of hearing loss to different audiometric mean values, Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, 75, 6, 794–800.

Davies W.J., Cox T.J., Kearon A.T., Longhurst B.J., Webb C.L. (2001), Hearing loss in the built environment: the experience of elderly people, Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 87, 5, 610–616.

Diao M., Sun J., Jiang T., Tian F., Jia Z., Liu Y., Chen D. (2014), Comparison between self-reported hearing and measured hearing thresholds of the elderly in China, Ear and Hearing, 35, 5, e228–e232.

Diao M.F., Sun J.J., Tian F.J. (2013), The supplement effect of elderly hearing-impaired questionnaire on pure tone test of presbycusis patients [in Chinese], Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 21, 133–136.

Gopinath B., Hickson L., Schneider J., McMahon C.M., Burlutsky G., Leeder S.R., Mitchell P. (2012), Hearing-impaired adults are at increased risk of experiencing emotional distress and social engagement restrictions five years later, Age and Ageing, 41, 5, 618–623.

Harris R.W., Reitz M.L. (1985), Effects of room reverberation and noise on speech discrimination by the elderly, Audiology, 24, 5, 319–324.

Hu X.T., Huang Z.W., Chen J.Y., Mei L., Li Y., Ren Y. (2014), HHIE-S Scale for hearing screening in the elderly population[in Chinese], Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 22, 230–234.

Ji F., Chen A.T., Wang Q.J. (2015), Hearing loss in the aged: status and interventions in China, Audiological Medicine , 13, 2, 51–57.

Jupiter T., Palagonia C.L. (2001), The hearing handicap inventory for the elderly screening version adapted for use with actual Chinese American individuals, American Journal of Audiology, 10, 2, 99–103.

Kameda A., Sakamoto K. (2014), Study on the acoustical environment in station concourses for elderly people, JR East Technical Review, 28, 33–36.

Lichtenstein M.J., Hazuda H.P. (1998), Cross-cultural adaptation of the hearing handicap inventory for the elderly screening version (HHIE-S) for use with Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 46, 4, 492–498.

Liu H., Chen X.P. (2014), Status of hearing loss in elderly people and its influencing factors [in Chinese], Journal of Nursing, 21, 1–4.

López-Vázquez M., Orozco J., Jiménez G., Berruecos P. (2002), Spanish hearing impairment inventory for the elderly, International Journal of Audiology, 41, 4, 221–230.

Ma C.H., YUE C., Han C.C., Wen X.Q. (2014), Hearing disorders of community elderly: an investigation of status and its influencing factors[in Chinese], Chinese General Practice, 16, 1889–1891.

Neuman A.C., Wroblewski M., Hajicek J., Rubinstein A. (2010), Combined effects of noise and reverberation on speech recognition performance of normal-hearing children and adults, Ear and Hearing, 31, 3, 336–344.

Salonen J., Johansson R., Karjalainen S., Vahlberg T., Isoaho R. (2011), Relationship between self-reported hearing and measured hearing impairment in an elderly population in Finland, International Journal of Audiology, 50, 5, 297–302.

Sindhusake D., Mitchell P., Smith W., Golding M., Newall P., Hartley D., Rubin G. (2001), Validation of self-reported hearing loss. The Blue Mountains Hearing Study, International Journal of Epidemiology, 30, 6, 1371–1378.

Sogebi O.A., Mabifah T.O. (2015), Validation of hearing handicap inventory for the elderly questionnaire among elderly subjects in Sagamu, Nigeria, Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal, 22, 4, 228–232.

Tian B.H,. Qin X., Hu C.C. (2016), Taking about the noise control in residential buildings for the elderly [in Chinese], Shanxi Architecture, 42, 19–20.

Toppila E., Pyykkö I., Starck J. (2001), Age and noise-induced hearing loss, Scandinavian Audiology, 30, 4, 236–244.

Ventry I.M., Weinstein B.E. (1982), The hearing handicap inventory for the elderly: a new tool, Ear and Hearing, 3, 3, 128–134.

Wang G.Q., Li C.J., Guan W.J., Xiong J.W., Kuang C.J., Hu Y.Q. (2014), Development and evaluation of reliability and validity tests of The Chinese Version of HHIE-S [in Chinese], Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 22, 568–572.

Yu L.M., Sun X.B., Wei Z.Y., Wang Q., Qu C.Y. (2008), A study on the status quo of aged population with hearing loss in China [in Chinese], Chinese Scientific Journal of Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation, 6, 63–65.

Zhai X.Y., Liu B., Zhang Y.H., Liu X.B., Han H.J., Sun T.T. (2016), Application and relevance analysis of hearing handicap inventory for the elderlyscreening in presbycusis survey[in Chinese], Chin. Arch. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surg., 23, 27–30.

Zhang X.W., Ying Z.B., Peng Q.H., Wang W.B. (2015), Study on the prevalence and influencing factors of hearing loss among the elderly, Pract Prev Med., 22, 573–576.

Zhang Y., Gao Z.G., Wang H., Xu L.H., Jin L., Zhao J.H. (2011), Effects on Quality of Life in the Elderly with Age -related Hearing Loss, Hei Long Jiang Medical Journal, 35, 382–384.




DOI: 10.24425/123924