Quality of Life among Adults With Hearing Impairment in Gaza Governorates
Date
2020-08-19
Authors
Fatma Ali Mosa Ramadan
فاطمة علي موسى رمضان
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
Background: Hearing impairment is one of the chronic health condition and one of disabilities connected strongly with cognition, self-image, exchanging information and affect Quality of life thus understanding the impact of hearing loss on quality of life is of great importance. Quality of Life has emerged as an important parameter for assessing the challenges among adult with hearing impairment in order to contribute in improvement of their quality of life.
Objective: Is to assess QOL among adults with hearing impairment in Gaza Strip.
Design and Setting: Descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study has been performed in 215 adults with hearing impairment aged 19 years and above on follow-up through schools, community organizations are providing services for individuals with hearingdisability. The study was conducted at 6-selected areas which provide services and deal with people with hearing impairment which are distributed at the governorates of the GS; Mostafa Al-Rafeaia Secondery school (Gaza City governorate), Deer Albalah ; Al-Dameer assosiation (Mid Zone governorate), Palestinian Red Croscent Society ; Alamal school and Faculty of Capacity Development (Khan Yunis governorate), Disabled Rehabilitation and Social Training Association (Alamal school at Rafah, Alhanan school at Deer al-Balah, Besan school at Nusirat camp, Jabalia school at Jabalia camp ) and The Center for Disability Services at the Islamic University. After recording the participants’ socioeconomics, demographics and health characteristics, they filled out the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and the relationship between various variables and the QOL score was evaluated.
Results:The resultsshowed that the mean score of study participants’ QOL was (64.1%). It showed that the psychological dimension had the first rank with the percentage (67.8%), and the environmental field ranked the last with a weighted mean (60%). The results of the study showed that there are statistically significant differences (α ≤ 0.05) between the total quality of life with the variables of the family's level of understanding of the hearing impaired and interacting with them, the variable of the presence of another disability associated with hearing impairment, as well as the variable of using hearing aids such as headphones while it showed that there were no statistically significant differences (α ≥ 0.05) between participants on the total quality of life with the other variables such as sex, age,the level of education, personal status (single, married), the average household income, the extent of commitment to health follow-up, and suffering from any health problem. Moreover, the results of the study showed that hearing difficulties appear in every generation, but their prevalence increases among the elderly. Hearing-impaired persons suffer from emotional, behavioral and adaptive problems with others, which leads to symptoms such as anxiety, depression and confusion, and hearing loss and ear problems such as tinnitus have a negative impact on mental health.
Conclusion : The findings demonstrated that participants with hearing impairments had a medium level of perception about their QOL. This study identified common problems and challenges encountered by adults with hearing impairments which now are not assessed regularly in Gaza society. The study has proved a wide effects on
self-confidants, social roles and ability to function independently in every field of life , it affect the psychological side in the first place in addition to mental ,and social wellbeing.