Interventions after screening for hearing difficulties: a retrospective investigation of interventions other than hearing aids

There have been a number of studies on screening of hearing in adult populations. Despite the high importance of interventions following screening for hearing (Wilson and Jungner, 1968) there is a dearth of information on the nature of interventions following such screening, other than hearing aid fitting (HA) or referral to audiology/ENT departments (Pronk et al., 2011). In the late 1980s and early 1990s four studies were performed in Wales, which offered such other interventions to those individuals indicating hearing disabilities in screening questionnaires (eg Stephens et al., 1990; Davis et al., 1992). The majority of the patient notes from these studies were still accessible and have been examined to extract the following information: - what interventions were used other than hearing aids? - who received these interventions? - would they have been more appropriate than HAs for some of those fitted? The aim of this paper is to list the interventions provided in these studies and relate them to the initial complaints of those indicating hearing problems.