Vocational rehabilitation services for people with hearing difficulties: a systematic review of the literature.

Work

Department ENT/Audiology and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Department of Public and Occupational Health and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Published: June 2014

Objective: The goal of this review was to list and summarize work-related health programs for employees with hearing difficulties and to summarize the statistical evidence of the effectiveness of these programs.

Methods: A systematic review was performed by searching the PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library databases for relevant citations. From 2313 unique citations retrieved from the search strategy, we included nine programs that met all inclusion criteria. The authors assessed the methodological quality of studies which evaluated the program's effectiveness, using the Downs and Black checklist.

Results: Nine vocational rehabilitation programs for people with hearing difficulties were described. The programs differed in procedure, duration, setting, and content. In four studies, the effectiveness of the program was explored statistically. Measurements showed an improvement in general health (SF-36), communication strategies, and the degree of work readiness, but none of these studies included a control group, a power calculation, nor adjusted for confounding. Hence, the methodological quality to provide evidence of effectiveness was assessed as poor.

Discussion: Existing vocational programs for employees with hearing difficulties provide relevant information to demonstrate how to implement the appropriate content of the programs. Future research is required to improve the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation for workers with hearing difficulties.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-131743DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

hearing difficulties
20
vocational rehabilitation
12
evidence effectiveness
12
people hearing
8
systematic review
8
programs employees
8
employees hearing
8
methodological quality
8
programs
6
hearing
5

Similar Publications

Importance: Investigating rural-urban and regional differences in the association between dual sensory loss (concurrent hearing and vision loss) and depression may highlight gaps in sensory loss research and health care services, and by socioeconomic status. Whether urbanicity and region may modify associations between sensory loss and depression is unknown.

Objective: To describe the rural-urban and regional differences in the association of dual sensory loss with depression among older adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs), including benzodiazepines (BZDs) and Z drugs, are widely prescribed for anxiety and sleep. Therefore, issues of tolerance, dependence and adverse effects are of concern. Recent studies suggested a potential link between BZRAs and hearing problems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Guidelines for Diagnosis of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and Their Specificity.

Clin Otolaryngol

December 2024

Consultant ENT Surgeon, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Manchester Royal Infirmary; Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

Objectives: A recent paper by Moore, Lowe and Cox has proposed guidelines for diagnosing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It is referred to here as the MLC guidelines. Our aim was to assess the specificity of those guidelines (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Central auditory disorders (CSD) - this is a violation of the processing of sound stimuli, including speech, above the cochlear nuclei of the brain stem, which is mainly manifested by difficulties in speech recognition, especially in noisy environments. Children with this pathology are more likely to have behavioral problems, impaired auditory, linguistic and cognitive development, and especially difficulties with learning at school.

Objective: To analyze the literature data on the epidemiology of central auditory disorders in school-age children.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: We investigated the feasibility and validity of the remotely-administered neuropsychological battery from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set (UDS T-Cog).

Methods: Two hundred twenty Penn Alzheimer's Disease Research Center participants with unimpaired cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia completed the T-Cog during their annual UDS evaluation. We assessed administration feasibility and diagnostic group differences cross-sectionally across telephone versus videoconference modalities, and compared T-Cog to prior in-person UDS scores longitudinally.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!