Biomedical subjects

M Eriksson-Mangold

Publications and source records attributed to M Eriksson-Mangold.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Psychometric evaluation of the Gothenburg Profile for measurement of experienced hearing disability and handicap: applications with new hearing aid candidates and experienced hearing aid users.

The Gothenburg Profile (GP) for measurement of experienced hearing disability and handicap was developed with content partly taken from the shortened Hearing Measurement Scale (HMS25). The GP consists of 20 items divided into two subscales. The first subscale measures Experienced Disability as to hearing speech (items 1-5) and sound localization (items 6-10). The second subscale targets the Experienced Handicap in social settings (items 11-15) and the personal reactions to the experienced handicap (items 16-20). In this study, data are presented for new hearing aid candidates (NewHA) (n=441) and for experienced hearing aid users (ExpHA) (n=476). Principal components factor analyses were conducted and a three-factor solution was obtained, supporting the two factors of the Experienced Disability subscale, but just confirming one factor in the Experienced Handicap subscale. The internal consistency reliability (coefficient alpha) was good (0.85 to 0.95) for the subscales as was the test-retest reliability. The ExpHA group expressed significantly greater disability (first subscale) as well as experienced handicap (second subscale). However, when controlling for hearing level the differences disappeared. The clinical use of the GP for assessment of rehabilitation needs is recommended.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

The subjective meaning of illness in severe otosclerosis: a descriptive study in three steps based on focus group interviews and written questionnaire.

The aim of this study of otosclerosis patients was to highlight the circumstances specific to an operable middle ear disease and to describe the psychologically unique aspects accompanying this disorder. In a first step five subjects participated in four focus group interviews, from which emanated a questionnaire answered in a second step by 28 randomly chosen subjects. Finally a second series of supplementary focus interviews were conducted with another group of subjects, after which the interview material was subjected to code-mapping, agreement and validation. The study results indicate that ear surgery was a very important occurrence in the lives of the patients and a unique aspect was that they were burdened by a sense of responsibility for deciding in favour of or against the ear surgery and in choosing the time for operation. An event as tangible as an operation impacts on the individual's psychological processing of the fact that one of his or her senses is damaged. The message to the person's surroundings is very clear: the operation makes others understand how serious the situation is, gives rise to a sense of sympathy. These factors together may promote adaptation to the handicap, or alternately, at least for some persons, may impede adaptation to the necessary hearing aids. To some individuals hearing aids were strongly associated with periods of deteriorating hearing and therefore had negative connotations. Thus the hearing aid was used while waiting for surgery or instead of surgery. The constant hope of regaining one's hearing through ear surgery, although not totally realistic in these cases of severe otosclerosis, always makes the hearing aid the second best solution. The overall conclusion from this study is that there are specific circumstances of an operable ear disease which have great impact upon quality of life, well-being and adaptation. The psychological situation is one of instability, feelings of responsibility and at times of anxiety. Patients with otosclerosis are sometimes told that they are better off than others with impaired hearing, because surgery can improve their hearing and because good amplification through hearing aids can be achieved in persons with conductive hearing losses. It is our hope that this study has helped to provide a fuller picture of the facts of life for persons with severe otosclerosis.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1996

Ménière's disease: trauma, distress and adaptation studied through focus interview analyses.

In order to investigate, in depth, the role of psychological factors in Ménière's disease, i.e. how the patients experience and interpret their symptoms during the process of this illness, a qualitative method "focus group interviews" was used as a study design. The focus group included four subjects; one woman and three men. In addition, semi-structured interviews were performed with each of four more subjects having the disease, three women and one man, in order to guarantee representativity in terms of gender and age. Through the focus interview analyses eight final codes and a number of sub-codes were developed. Results clearly pointed out the significance of the first traumatic attack of the disease as well as early signs; different "psychosomatic" symptoms prior to the attacks. The recognition of fear and phobic reactions in the manifestation of the vertigo attack was considered as an important observation, as attacks often were triggered by distressing thoughts as well as by sensory sensations. Other areas, touched upon for future investigation, were crisis adaptation and illness function.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Perceived sound quality of three bone-anchored hearing aid models.

Eighteen patients judged the sound quality of the new Classic 300 and the existing HC 100 or HC 200 on 4 five-stage sound quality scales. Two of the scales relate to the perceptual dimensions softness and clarity, one relates to interference or noise and one relates to the overall impression. The evaluations were made, based on a questionnaire, in the patients' own homes and comprised the listening situations: TV news, music, conversation with two to three people in a noisy environment and one optional choice. The patients also stated which hearing aid was best in each situation and made a confidence rating for their selection. The patients were accustomed to wearing the HC 100 or HC 200. In these comparisons of the different bone-anchored hearing aid models, the Classic 300 received the best ratings overall. Seventeen patients changed their previously fitted hearing aid to a Classic 300 and satisfactory sound quality was undoubtedly one of the principal reasons. When it came to the confidence rating for their selections, some two-thirds of the patients stated that it was without hesitation or with little hesitation. Our overall conclusion is that the sound quality of bone-anchored hearing aids is satisfactory when it comes to clarity and overall impression. However, it may be expected that these patients with conductive losses get a better sound quality than other patients with sensorineural losses if the same type of aid is used.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Psychometric evaluation of a Swedish version of the communication strategies scale of the communication profile for the hearing impaired.

The Communication Strategies scale of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (CPHI) was translated into Swedish and used in several studies of people with hearing impairment (Hallberg & Carlsson, in press; Hallberg, Erlandsson, & Carlsson, 1991). In this study the scale was evaluated in terms of descriptive statistics, corrected item-total correlations, principal component analysis, and internal consistency reliability. Agreement with results from American studies is surprisingly good. Normative data based on three samples are presented: a general Swedish hearing-impaired sample with predominantly sensorineural hearing loss (N = 199), a subgroup of 105 younger subjects with noise-induced hearing loss, and a subgroup of 39 older subjects with sensorineural hearing loss due to heredity and/or old age. A significantly more frequent use of maladaptive behaviors (p less than .001) and verbal communication strategies (p less than .01) was reported by older subjects with age-related and/or hereditary hearing loss than by younger subjects with noise-induced hearing loss. The Communication Strategies scale seems to be an adequately reliable and clinically useful instrument for assessing adaptive and maladaptive strategies in hearing-impaired subjects.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1992

Psychometric evaluation of the hearing measurement scale on patients registered in a Swedish hearing centre.

The hearing measurement scale (HMS), targeting the experience of being hearing impaired, was translated into Swedish and answered by 122 patients with slight to moderate hearing losses. According to the item analysis the test construction of the HMS functions well with a relevant division of the sections. In all sections there were individuals utilizing all response possibilities and the homogeneity (alpha) of the test was high. One exception was section II (hearing non-verbal sounds), which may be due to lack of awareness, indicating that it might not be possible to pursue this dimension by a questionnaire approach. Normative descriptions were given for two age groups: 40 to 60 and 61 to 74 years, including both sexes. The groups had a similar outcome on the HMS, even though the older subjects, on average, had worse hearing problems, measured by pure-tone audiometry. The section covering speech perception had the strongest correlation with hearing loss, while the section covering emotional response entirely lacked such correlations for the younger group.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1991

Psychological and somatic distress in relation to perceived hearing disability, hearing handicap, and hearing measurements.

Acquired hearing loss has frequently been reported to cause strains in everyday life, but few attempts have been reported where the affliction is related to the concept of stress. In this within-subjects investigation of 48 middle-aged to elderly hearing impaired patients, the relationships between hearing measurements, experienced disability and handicap (HMS), and psychological and somatic distress symptoms (SCL-90(R)) were analyzed. The variations in experienced hearing disability was found to correlate to the occurrence of a few, but more severe distress symptoms, and by loss of hearing for high frequencies. The experienced handicap, defined as emotional responses and personal opinions, was found to correlate to a general level of distress. In particular those distress items expressing insecurity were related to handicap experience. It was suggested that insecurity in social settings, and diminished hearing for contextual sounds, could cause a perceived loss of control, which could induce stress reactions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1990

Clinical trials with a programmable hearing aid set for various listening environments.

A conventional hearing aid has a frequency response that does not change much at normal listening levels. It is therefore unlikely that optimal speech intelligibility and optimal listening comfort can be obtained simultaneously, or in different listening environments. With a programmable hearing aid with multiple memories the listener can choose between a range of sound pictures, which increases the chance of finding a suitable frequency curve for each listening situation. The programmable hearing aid with eight separate settings stored in eight memories, was compared with personal hearing aids fitted according to the recommendations of the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) by 22 experienced hearing aid users. One memory of the programmable hearing aid was initially fitted according to the NAL recommendation. The other memories were programmed to give variations around that recommendation. One aim was to investigate whether the hearing-impaired user took advantage of different frequency responses to achieve listening improvements in acoustically different environments. Another aim was to evaluate the ergonomic and acoustical features of the programmable hearing aid, compared with other well fitted hearing aids. The evaluations were based on comparisons of the test hearing aid to the personal aid for each subject, looking at speech tests, direct paired comparison judgements, sound quality judgements and interviews. A majority of the subjects experienced substantial benefit from being able to use different frequency response curves in different environments. With the test hearing aid the subjects performed better in speech discrimination tests in noise.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

PubMed1990

The active fitting (AF) programme of hearing aids: a psychological perspective.

Rehabilitation of the majority of hearing handicapped in Sweden consists of hearing aid fitting, provision of technical devices and information during about four visits to a Hearing Centre. Generally there is no structured guidance of the hearing handicapped on how to proceed with the hearing aid at home between appointments. A programme of active fitting (AF) of hearing aids, with a task-oriented diary, 'Try Your Hearing Aid' as a basic part, was therefore developed. We conducted a series of studies from 1985 to 1988 with the aim of investigating the benefit and applicability of the programme. A total of 128 new hearing aid candidates participated in three studies at the Sahlgrens hospital and at four other hearing centres in smaller Swedish towns. In a controlled study the AF group was more positive to their hearing aids and to the fitting period after 10 months. They used their hearing aids more frequently and felt psychologically more secure with them. It was established that the AF programme could well be applied in the clinical routine for a majority of new hearing aid patients. Old age per se was not found to be a relevant exclusion criterion. The positive outcome of the AF programme has stimulated the Swedish Institute of the Handicapped to print 'Try Your Hearing Aid' with a manual, and to introduce it to all hearing centres in Sweden.

Aged↗

PubMed1990

Multi-programmable hearing aid.

A basic problem in hearing-aid fitting is the difficulty in finding one setting optimal to all listening situations that might occur. The objective was to develop a behind-the-ear hearing-aid with a very flexible analog signal processor which is digitally controlled, and a memory with logic, so that the hearing-impaired person can select from eight completely different fittings. To program and adjust this multi-programmable hearing-aid (called MemoryMate) a hearing evaluation and recommendation system (called Master-Fit) has been developed, based on an IBM PS/2 computer. This system offers the dispenser prescriptive fitting methods and performance of real ear measurements. It can be used to manage a client database. Preliminary results from a clinical study conducted in 1988 are presented. The paper also describes the uniqueness of this multi-programmable hearing aid as a powerful new research tool.

Aged↗

PubMed1984

Preferred hearing aid gain and bass-cut in relation to prescriptive fitting.

The insertion gain versus frequency, preferred by a group of moderately hearing-impaired, elderly, untrained hearing aid users was investigated both in everyday listening situations and in an acoustically specified test situation in the laboratory. The subjects used experimental binaural hearing aids with modified controls, which could be easily and accurately operated. They adjusted both gain and bass-cut while using the aids. Preferred insertion gain was compared with recommendations from three methods of prescriptive fitting. These methods significantly overestimated preferred gain by about 10 dB. Preliminary fittings should allow a gain reserve of about 15 db. Intra-individually, a gain range of about 11 dB is often sufficient for different everyday situations.

Acoustics↗