An Audiological Profile of Elderly Australians Reporting Speech Affecting Stroke

This study examined the audiological profile and hearing rehabilitation of 73 people who reported having had speech-affecting strokes. Participants were drawn from the Blue Mountains Hearing Study (BMHS), a population survey of age-related hearing loss in 2956 members of a representative elderly Australian community. While speech-affecting stroke did not seem to cause greater levels of hearing impairment or handicap than for other participants matched for age and gender, this may be due to a low prevalence of participants with severe effects on speech or language as a result of their stroke. Although 52% of participants self-reported a hearing loss, fewer than 23% had ever worn a hearing aid with only 15% wearing hearing aids for more than 1 hour per day. Pure tone audiometry identified 64% of participants with thresholds considered appropriate for hearing aid fitting when previously established criteria were applied. Questions concerning use of hearing aid/s and self reported hearing loss were not reliable in determining which participants with a speech affecting stroke met these audiometric criteria. The risks of uncorrected hearing loss compromising speech and language assessment and rehabilitation following stroke are discussed.