Handicap versus impairment: an important distinction. uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • In this era of spiraling health care costs, audiologists are being held accountable for the rehabilitative interventions that they are uniquely qualified to deliver. Accountability data in the rehabilitative arena should address the efficacy of short- and long-term treatment. If a treatment such as a hearing aid is dispensed for the purpose of reducing the communicative and psychosocial handicap associated with hearing loss, efficacy data should demonstrate whether such a goal has been attained. Increased attention has been focused on the value of self-assessment questionnaires as instruments that are predictive of candidacy for hearing aids, intent to purchase hearing aids, and outcomes with a given hearing aid treatment. Case studies demonstrate the advantage of engaging the client in the rehabilitative process through the use of responses to self-assessment questionnaires. It is evident that the client's appraisal of the handicapping effect of a given impairment is associated with treatment efficacy.

publication date

  • May 1, 1995

Research

keywords

  • Disabled Persons
  • Hearing Aids
  • Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0029298112

PubMed ID

  • 7620203

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 6

issue

  • 3