Introduction: The number of hearing impairments in Sweden is increasing. The largest increase is seen in ages 25-44. There are reasons to believe that these impairments are noise induced. Leisure time noise is not controlled in the same manner that industrial noise is. An ongoing conflict between city council officials and rock club owners, musicians and music event organizers about sound levels at smaller live music clubs exceeding the national sound level restrictions created the need for an acoustic intervention project.

Sammanfattning:Audionomyrket har utvecklats från ett assisterande till ett självständigt yrke. Framsteg inom forskning berörande Audiologi ställer höga krav på audionomens kompetensutveckling. Internationellt har det undersökts hur kompetensutveckling kan förbättras, genom bildandet av frivilliga eller obligatoriska kompetensutvecklingsprogram, för att ge en säker patientvård och en tillfredsställande yrkesutveckling. I Sverige ansvarar varje audionom enskilt för sin kompetensutveckling. Det finns i dagsläget inga studier som undersöker svenska audionomers inställning till att införa liknande kompetensutvecklingsprogram som finns internationellt, vilket är motivet bakom studien.

Audiological rehabilitation is a complex process and can involve medical, educational, psychological, social and technical proceedings. The Audiologist's part in this process is essential. The purpose of the study was twofold: to describe the Audiologist's working process and to explore patient records written by Audiologists according to structure, content and comprehensiveness. Method. Out of rules and regulations, code of ethics and literature concerning Audiological rehabilitation from the Audiologist's point of view, a model for the Audiologist's working process was developed.

Adjustment to acquired hearing loss can be understood as a process of learning and change where the point of departure is the subjective apppraisal of a person?s hearing loss in a social and cultural context. The aim of the study was to describe women?s thoughts, emotions and actions prior to Audiological rehabilitation, since these are considered important for the ongoing process of adjustment and for the planning of rehabilitation. A phenomenographical approach was used in order to describe the variation in the women?s attitudes before attending rehabilitation.

Hearing is considered to be the most important sense for the communication between people. Several studies have shown that hearing loss can lead to deterioration in quality of life, reduced social activities, feelings of alienation and hence the increasing incidence of depression symptoms.An early Audiological rehabilitation is a prerequisite for proper communication among people with hearing loss. Knowledge has been shown to be of great importance and structured learning and individually targeted approach can be expected to facilitate the Audiological rehabilitation.The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an educational effort for people with hearing loss where the effort was made in the distance within the Audiological rehabilitation and was followed-up by professional phone support, through a randomized controlled study.The study group consisted of 69 hearing aid users who were randomized by an independent person into two groups, an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group (n = 33) had access to the book "When the sounds are weaker - on hearing and hearing aids". The group received weekly topic-based information related to the different chapters of the book, in five rounds.