Perfil epidemiológico dos pacientes atendidos no laboratório de próteses auditivas da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria

Abstract

In 2003, the Federal University of Santa Maria signed a partnership agreement with the Health Secretary of the State of Rio Grande do Sul which lasted until 2004. This partnership aimed at the donation of hearing aids to the users of the Sistema Único de Saúde. In 2005, the Federal Government carried out a registration for the concession of continuous flow hearing aids. Based on that, relevant data were collected to be used in researches. However, demonstrative studies of these patients profile had not been carried out yet. This work aimed at outlining a panorama of the patients attended in the Hearing Aids Laboratory of the Federal University of Santa Maria, determining the profile of these patients according to genre, age, profession, place of origin, auditory diagnosis, the kind of fitted hearing aid, as well as how long the patient claimed to have the problem. The study was carried out through the analysis of medical reports of all patients attended between April 7, 2003 and June 29, 2006, which makes up a total of 348 patients. It was verified that there was no predominance related to genre in the patients who were assessed; regarding occupation, retired people and students were the most frequent; the time between noticing the problem and looking for help was more than 10 years in most cases; the sensorineural hearing losses of moderate level and of descending configuration were predominant. Besides, behind-the-ear hearing aids were the most fitted, as a result of the laboratory preference for this kind of hearing aid. Such preference was due to previous negative experiences with in-the-ear, in-the-canal and completely-in-thecanal hearing aids.