청력손상은 소리를 듣는 기관의 장애로 잘 듣지 못하는 현상을 의미하며, 청각장애는 청력손상으로 발생하는 의사소통 및 사회 · 정서적 장애를 의미한다(ASHA, 1981). 이러한 현상을 설명하는 용어로 2001년 세계보건기구(WHO, World Health Organization)는 1980년대 기존의 정의와 비교하여 신체기능과 구조의 결함을 ‘손상(impairment)’으로 기존의 장애(disability)는 ‘활동제한(activity limitation)’으로 기존의 핸디캡(handicap)은 ‘참여제약(participation restriction)’으로 변경하면서 장애란 용어를 손상, 활동제한, 참여제약을 모두 총칭하는 의미로 정의하고 있다(WHO, 1980; 2001). 이는 기존 1980년 장애분류와 비교할 때 의학적 모델과 사회적 모델을 모두 수용하고자 하는 의미로 해석할 수 있다. 그러나 아직도 ‘장애’라는 용어는 일반적이어서 본 연구에서는 청력손상으로 발생하는 의사소통 및 사회·정서적 장애를 포함하는 의미로 ‘장애지수’라는 용어를 사용하고자 한다. 청력을 측정하는 방법으로는 순음청력검사, 어음청력검사, 전기 생리적 청력검사 등 다양한 주관적·객관적 방법이 있지만 이러한 방법은 개인의 청력상태의 특성과 그에 따른 장애지수를 측정하는데 적절하지 못한 것으로 보고되고 있다(Lutman et al., 1987; Marcus-Bernstein, 1986).
\"Attitudes toward Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (ALHQ) designed by Brooks(1989) was interpreted to Korean in order to provide Korean psychometric evaluation data. For validating the results and possibility of clinical utilization, the analysis method was adapted from Saunders & Cienkowski(1996) who divided five reliable scales of 24-questions version of ALHQ: 1) Social Emotional Impact of Hearing Loss (SEI), 2) Lack of Acceptance/Adjustment to Hearing Loss (LAA), 3) Perceived Absence of Support from ignificant Others (PASSO), 4) Hearing Aid Stigma (HAS), 5) Awareness of Hearing Loss (AHL). 104 hearing impaired Korean participated and completed the questionnaire. Scoring method 1 and 2, giving 1 and 2 for the positive response, respectively, were used. All five scales were scored such that a positive response, and consequently a higher score, means a poor attitude toward hearing loss. Cronbach\'s α were .471~ .693 and .368~ .628, for scoring method 1 and 2, indicating somewhat low reliability. The correlation of the scales were statistically significant for all scales. Pure tone audiometric data explained little about the variance in scores. Right ear pure tone averages of 0.5~4 kHz were significantly correlated with SEI scores and SEI scores were significantly correlated with total ALHQ score, LAA and SEI. Demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, period of wearing hearing aid did not give any influence over the scores. Conclusively, the interpreted ALHQ is a potentially useful clinical tool for aural rehabilitation and counseling, if the personality data are added and more studies are conducted with more participants. However, it is suggested to develop Korean questionnaire to overcome interpreted English questionnaire. KEY WORDS : Attitudes toward Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (ALHQ), Aural rehabilitation, Counseling, Hearing impaired.\"
\"INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSIONS REFERENCES\"
