It is well accepted that by the year 2030 the number of elderly persons will increase dramatically such that they will present more than 50% of the total United States population. The goal of the proposed project is to develop Spanish version of the Haring Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE), the most widely accepted self-assessment tool used by physicians, nurses and audiologists to screen older adults for handicapping hearing impairment. Once a reliable Spanish version of the HHIE has been developed, it will be used as the basis for a bilingual multimedia and web version which will have the dual objective of educating Spanish and English speaking older adults about hearing impairment, hearing handicap, hearing aids and assistive listening devices, and of screening these individuals for handicapping hearing impairments. Hispanic speaking older adults, who represent a growing minority group among the elderly, are underserved yet require hearing health care services necessary to insure that hearing loss is identified early enough to allow for intervention to prevent the onset of the negative psychosocial consequences of handicapping hearing impairment The various versions of the HHIE will be validated on a Spanish speaking population to insure that it is culturally sensitive and is an acceptable approach to increasing the number of older Hispanic adults with potentially devastating hearing impairment. The original English version of the HHIE handicapping hearing loss and it is hoped that outcomes with the bilingual version will be as favorable.
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