This project started when LIC Audio AB wanted help with development of a hearing aid for public rooms. The problem is that a lot of people suffer from some sort of hearing impairment. In places with a lot of people and background noise the problem becomes bigger and the sound seems to flow together. During the project we found the solution for the problem in the shape of a headphone. The headphone receives a signal from a preinstalled hearing loop.

Background: More than half of the elderly (65-84 years) in Sweden have problems with hearing. In some studiesit?s discussed if age related hearing loss or presbyacusis is a part of natural aging or if it depends on underlyingfactors.The purpose of this literature study was to analyse scientific papers which illustrate correlations between lessknown underlying factors and presbyacusis, defined from psychoacoustic and/or neurofysiological tests.Material and method; Literature study where scientific papers, relevant to the purpose of the study and thequestions at issue were found in the database PubMed.The result shows that cardiovascular disease, hormones, diet and drugs have an influence on presbyacusis. Thehealth condition of the individual and their lifestyle matters, likewise estrogen which according to the results of 2studies has a protective effect on hearing.Conclusion; The studies show that heart attack and high systolic blood pressure in women have a correlation topresbyacusis, but not in men, - the hormone estrogen, - some vitamins, antioxidants and diet have a protectiveeffect on hearing and studies show that smoking and alcohol have negative effects..

Audionomprogrammet.

Objective: From the patient?s perspective describe communication difficulties, which can arise, and how they are handled in their contact with public health care and illustrate their needs of communication.Method: A study of literature was carried out to receive a background and an insight in previous research concerning the subject area. Twelve women with hearing loss was asked to complete a questionnaire, with open questions, regarding communication difficulties in health care situations.Sample: For the literature review, scientific papers were selected via the database, PubMed using relevant keywords. Seven were selected for closer review. For the survey study twelve women were asked to participate which ten of those responded.Results: The study of literature shows that communication difficulties occur in public health care between patients with hearing loss and the nursing staff.

A cochlear implant (CI) is a hearing device that makes it possible for individuals who are deaf or has a severe hearing impairment to receive auditory information and develop spoken language. The pragmatic ability may be affected. In short, pragmatics may be described as the study of language use in social contexts. Pragmatic ability can be seen as the result of the individual?s behavior as well as the underlying causes.The aim of the present study was to describe the pragmatic ability in children with CI.

In recent years cognitive training in order to improve cognitive abilities have becomeincreasingly popular and a lot of research has been conducted within this field. The natural agingprocess has a negative effect on many of our cognitive abilities and this relationship also has a strongconnection with hearing loss. Elderly with hearing loss is therefore a group that could benefit fromcognitive training. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate different types of cognitivetraining directed towards working memory in older adults and to examine the results observedregarding efficacy of this type of training and its transfer effect. Method: A literature reviewconsisting of 17 scientific articles published between 2005-2014.

Background: Phonemically balanced word lists are used when obtaining speech recognition scores in noise. These lists are designed for adults, but are still used for children. To properly obtain speech recognition scores in noise for children, normative data is needed to show what differences there are to be expected between children of different ages. Purpose: The main purpose is to obtain normative data for children in the ages of 7, 10 and 13 years for speech recognition scores in noise using words and to compare these with each other and with normative data of adults. A further purpose is to examine if there is any practice- or exhaustion effect to be seen when obtaining speech recognition scores in noise for children in the ages of 7, 10 and 13 years.Material: The participants were ten 7-year-olds, ten 10-year-olds and ten 13-year-olds.

Objective: From the patient?s perspective describe communication difficulties, which can arise, and how they are handled in their contact with public health care and illustrate their needs of communication.Method: A study of literature was carried out to receive a background and an insight in previous research concerning the subject area. Twelve women with hearing loss was asked to complete a questionnaire, with open questions, regarding communication difficulties in health care situations.Sample: For the literature review, scientific papers were selected via the database, PubMed using relevant keywords. Seven were selected for closer review. For the survey study twelve women were asked to participate which ten of those responded.Results: The study of literature shows that communication difficulties occur in public health care between patients with hearing loss and the nursing staff.

The purpose of this paper was to discuss stigma and stigmatisation in relation to social policy and social work. By discussing welfare systems in social policy I wanted to see if there could be any connection between social policy and stigma. I used case studies of hearing impaired adults to give examples of how the stigma processes work. By connecting the stigma and the social policy theories with the case studies I wanted to see how the social policy could affect the stigma processes or vice versa.In the paper the concept of stigma has been described and discussed, foremost using the theories of Erving Goffman. I have also discussed the welfare system and the connection between residual systems and stigma.

A speech-based material that early can assess a child's hearing is needed to provide an indication of a hearing impaired child's language development. Being able to identify and discriminate between different sounds is a requirement for interpreting speech. Hearing assessments that examine speech perception can therefore, unlike, for example, pure tone audiometry, examine a hearing impaired child's perceptual language skills and provide a basis for intervention.The purpose of this work is to evaluate a new auditory material on 3-year-old children. The auditory material is based on the Ling-6-sounds and the main question was which of the sounds in the test were adequate for test of discrimination. Furthermore, it was investigated how the test works with children aged 3:0?3:11 years and how age and gender affect the result.Twenty-four children aged 3:0?3:11 years were tested using a computer based test.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the clinical application to use ASSR in anesthetized childrenDesignOne main ambition of the investigation was to compare hearing threshold using ABR with estimated hearing threshold using ASSR. Another aim was to examine if the duration of an ASSR measurement could be reduced by only using the frequencies 1, 2 and 4 kHz and exclude the frequency 0.5 kHz. This is a retrospective study using electrophysiological measurement from a database.ResultResults showed a high correlation between hearing threshold using ABR and estimated thresholds using ASSR, with the frequency 0.5 kHz showing a slightly lower correlation. Result also showed that the test duration was increased when using all test frequencies in ASSR-measurement compared to when 0.5kHz was excluded. ConclusionThe study showed a high correlation when comparing hearing threshold using ABR and ASSR.

The goal of this Master?s thesis is to explore the approach and general attitude of public libraries regarding Sign Language Literature. There is a need to study and advance how the deaf can find ways to read in their own language, as it is as important to them to be able to read in their language, as it is to the next hearing person. The purpose is to define and explain the full capacity of the problem. In the process of research, by investigating how library staff approaches and deal with deaf patrons, the nature of the patron-staff relationship is revealed.

The use of group contribution between consolidated firms is a common phenomenon in Sweden where taxation is not based on the return on the consolidated level but on the return on the individual firms. However, the process of handling the group contribution does not work without problems. This thesis analyzes three main issues where group contributions oppose the Swedish Companies Act. ? The Swedish Companies Act enacts the decision regarding group contributions to be made at a shareholder?s meeting.

The aims were to investigate the public awareness of aphasia in a Swedish sample and examine if knowledge of aphasia relates to gender, education or age. Participant?s sources of knowledge of aphasia were examined. A total of 153 individuals, aged 18-90, were surveyed. Participants were categorized into three groups; heard of, knowledge of and not heard of aphasia.

In Sweden approximately ten percent of all children grows up in a family where at least one parent is having an alcohol related addiction. Since 1998 the development of group activities for children in this situation has been immense. The aim of group activities is to break the child's isolation and make them feel that they are not lonely in their experiences, give them knowledge about addiction and relive the pressure of guilt and responsibility.In a comparative study we examined studied how two different group activity models one with the conception of illness and one without, use the children's network to support the group process. The aim was also to find each models definition of the "normal family", since we understood the groupactivity as a part in the normalization process. We reached our aim through interviews with group leaders and by literature studies.