目的：本研究分析台灣榮民之家老年男性住民聽力功能，並藉此探討聽損與老年生活品質間之關係。
方法：本研究以橫斷面研究法，於2011年2月至6月在台灣南部三所榮民之家，針對65歲以上生理功能良好、非晚期失智與非隔離照護的老年男性榮民進行研究，以純音聽力檢測儀測量其聽力並以自填結構性問卷調查住民的基本人口學、臨床特徵、老人聽覺表現量表和台灣簡明版世界衛生組織生活品質問卷等資料，最後以統計軟體SPSS 17.0版進行描述性與推論性資料分析。
結果：共有298位老年男性榮民接受測試，平均年齡83.9±5.1歲，平均認知表現為26.5±2.4分，入住機構的平均時間為84.4個月，其中有43.3%未婚，61.7%的教育程度為不識字或6年以下教育。純音聽力檢查結果雖顯示92.6%的老年男性聽損程度超過25分貝，然在老人聽覺表現問卷中僅有44%呈現輕度以上的聽障困擾；具40分貝以上聽損且有使用助聽器者佔20.7%。聽力正常與聽力缺損兩組在社會人口學與臨床特徵等變項中，除年齡與耳鳴外無顯著差異。生活品質得分與台灣60-65歲男性常模表相較，本研究對象的生理、心理及社會範疇均位於25-50百分位，環境範疇則位於50-75百分位。簡單回歸分析顯示，生理與心理的生活品質範疇隨聽損程度增加而得分愈低。逐步複迴歸分析顯示，人口學資料、臨床特徵、聽損程度與生活品質各範疇得分間並無相關，但憂鬱及老人聽覺表現量表，則與生理、心理、環境範疇生活品質呈顯著負相關。
結論：聽覺缺損是老年人常見的健康問題，會負向影響生理與心理範疇生活品質，定期聽覺健康評估有助於老年照護者辯識聽力困難個案，而老人聽覺表現量表是為一種方便實用的聽覺與相關生活品質評估工具。

Purpose of study: The current study explored the relationship between hearing impairment and quality of life of elderly residents at Veteran homes in Taiwan.
Methodalogy: A cross-sectional study was conducted at three Veteran Homes in southern Taiwan. Subjects were male veterans over 65 years old with stable physical functions and without advanced dementia or the need for isolation care. The demographic information and clinical characteristics were recorded. Hearing ability was measured with pure tone examination. The hearing performance and the quality of life were measured with the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE-S) and WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted using the software of SPSS 17.0.
Results: A total of 298 participants with mean age of 83.9±5.1 years old were recruited. The mean score of MMSE was 26.5±2.4 and mean living duration in the Veterans’ Home was 84.4 months. Near 43 % of them was single and 62% received education under 6 years. The results of pure tone test showed that 92.6% of participants had hearing impairment (≧25 dB). In contrast, 44% of them reported at least mild hearing handicapped and 20.7% of those with hearing threshold over 40 dB had hearing aids. There was no significant difference on demographic data and clinical characteristics between normal and impaired hearing groups, other than factors of age and tinnitus. Comparing with the norm of Taiwanese between 60 to 65 years old, the scores of physical, psychological and social relationship in this study were at 25-50 percentile and the scores of environmental domain were at 50-70 percentile. The simple linear regression showed that the worse hearing ability, the lower the scores of WHOQOL-BREF on physical and psychological domains. The stepwise multiple regression revealed that geriatric depression and the scores of HHIE-S were negatively associated with the quality of life in the physical, psychological, and environmental domains.
Conclusions: Age-related hearing impairment was one of the commonly found health problems in elderly Taiwanese and it negatively affects physical and psychological domain of quality of life of the elderly. Periodic hearing assessment could help the caregivers to identify the elders with hearing difficulty. HHIE-S can be another convenient and practical tool to evaluate the hearing functioning and quality of life.

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