Self Assessment in Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation

The inclusion of self-assessment in clinical research on hearing impairment has been in evidence since the time of a pioneering study by Thomas Barr, reported in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Glasgow in 1886, under the main title: 'Enquiry into the Effects of Loud Sounds upon the Hearing of Boilermakers' (Barr, 1886). Barr was a physician who became increasingly interested in and concerned about the hearing problems he observed in those of his patients who worked in one of the noisiest trades then extant: ship's boilermaking. This trade involves hammers and red hot rivets banged flat to secure heavy metal plates to each other in the construction of part of a steamship's engine. The noise generated by this activity is excruciatingly loud, and the incidence of severe hearing impairment among people engaged in boilermaking and similar metalworking has been found to be high (d. Atherley, Noble, & Sugden, 1967).