Health-Related Quality of Life and Hearing Aids

By Amyn M. Amlani

This article is a part of the November/December 2020, Volume 32, Number 6,  Audiology Today issue.

The negative impact of hearing loss on communication abilities, quality of life (QoL), social participation, and overall well-being is well documented (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016). Audiological rehabilitation (AR) provides a holistic approach to lessening the impact of hearing loss and improving the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) through sensory management, instruction, perceptual training, and counseling (Boothroyd, 2007).

From a public policy standpoint, measuring the benefits of treatment intervention on improving HRQoL, along with the costs to provide needed audiology technology and services, is essential to the audiology profession and the patients we serve. Why? Because health economics provides outcomes research to governments, payers, health ministries, clinicians, and patients, who then are able to adequately compare and select among the available intervention options.

The decision to select a given intervention is guided by assessing the costs associated with the treatment intervention, the benefits of the treatment intervention, and the way these factors compare to all illnesses, diseases, and injuries within health care. In this article, the reader is provided with an overview of the costs and benefits associated with hearing aids and rehabilitation services in adults.

Defining Health, QoL, and HRQoL

There is no consensus among scholars on the definition of the terms discussed in this section. The World Health Organization, for example, defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not just in the absence of a disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). Key aspects of disagreement among scholars with respect to the WHO definition are the inclusion of “social well-being” (Torrance, 1987) and the emphasis on “the absence of disease” (Patrick et al, 1982).

The significance of QoL in health care became apparent in the 1960s when medical interventions extended the length of life for individuals. Consequently, traditional measures of morbidity, biological functioning, and death rates were insufficient to quantify changes in population health (Bergner, 1985).

Many approaches to defining QoL exist, based on the dimensions of human needs, subjective well-being, social interactions, psychological status, physical status, functional abilities, expectations, and economic status (Post, 2014). In general, QoL should be viewed as an individual’s subjective perception about the way they feel, behave, function, and interact in their daily life at a given point in time.