AUDIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN THE ELDERLY Fones de inserção e fones supra-aurais: avaliação audiológica em idosos

Purpose: to investigate the influence of transducers type in pure-tone and speech audiometry of elderly in different decades of life. Methods: 39 individuals participated in this study of both sexes, aged between 60 and 89 years, selected from the Ambulatorio de Audiologia Clinica do Departamento de Fonoaudiologia - UNIFESP, were divided into three groups considering the decade of life (60-69 (G1), 70-79 (G2), 80-89 years old (G3 ). All individuals have undergone clinical history, pure-tone and speech audiometries which were performed with both supra-aural TDH-39 and ER-3A insert earphones. The results were statistically analyzed with the ANOVA and T-Student Pareado tests in order to compare the performance of the subjects with different transducers in groups and between age groups. Results: statistical analysis performed by ear and by group revealed lower hearing thresholds with ER-3A earphones with statistical significance in the frequencies of 4 and 6 kHz. Comparing age groups, poorer thresholds were obtained in the oldest subjects independent of the transducer. The older the subject, the poorer the thresholds independent of the transducer. Word recognition score showed better results with insert earphones and worsened with increasing age. Conclusion: insert earphones (ER-3A) provide better hearing thresholds compared to supra-aural headphones (TDH-39) at regardless of age. A progressive decrease in hearing and also in word recognition score result from increasing age.