Third-Party Disability in Spouses of Elderly Individuals: Comparing Outcomes with and without Hearing Aids Using SOS-HEAR

Introduction: Individuals with age-related hearing loss face various activity limitations and participation restrictions. This condition significantly impacts their spouses and family members, a phenomenon known as third-party disability, defined by the World Health Organization as the disability and functioning of family members due to a significant other's health condition. This study aimed to measure the third- party disability among spouses of elderly individuals with and without hearing aids using the Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability (SOS- HEAR). Method: 120 normal-hearing older adults aged 60 to 80 years with spouses having hearing loss ranging from moderate to severe sensorineural or mixed hearing loss with and without hearing aids were selected from various private Audiology clinics across Kerala. Pure tone audiometry, immittance audiometry and SOS-HEAR questionnaire were administered. Results: Descriptive statistical analysis revealed that higher auditory thresholds correlate with greater third-party disability. The mean average third-party disability scores were highest for the severe hearing loss group (58.00), followed by those with moderately severe (45.90) and moderate (40.58) hearing loss. Bonferroni pairwise comparison showed significant differences between moderate and severe hearing loss groups. The unaided group reported higher third-party disability (54.90) than the aided group (52.15). Among the SOS-HEAR domains, "Changes to Communication" was the most affected, followed by "Communication Burden." Spouses of unaided older adults experienced the greatest third-party disability. Overall, the aided group had lower mean scores in all domains, indicating reduced third-party disability with hearing aid use. Conclusion: The study found that hearing aids reduce third-party disability for the significant others of individuals with hearing loss by improving their communication skills. Therefore, involving the significant others of individuals with hearing loss in the rehabilitation process is crucial. Key words: Third-party disability, age-related hearing loss, communication partner, spouses, hearing aid, SOS HEAR