A Study for the Assessment of Disability and Compensation in Patients with Hearing Impairment

Lee, Jang Hyeog; Kim, Kyoung Min; Jung, Myung Ho; Im, Gi Jung; Jung, Hak Hyun; Hwang, Soon Jae; Chae, Sung Won

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Disability in hearing impairment represents not only an increase in hearing threshold level, but also unmeasurable subjective discomfort to patients. Until now, several guidelines for quantitative assessment of disability of hearing impairment have been offered. In Korea, laws for industrial accident compensation insurance (IACI) and disabled persons welfare (DPW), and guidelines proposed by American Medical Association (AMA) were frequently used to assess the degree of disability in hearing impaired patients, but there were some discrepancies in the methods and criterions of assessment among the different guidelines and laws. The purposes of this study were to compare these guidelines and look for the problems and to suggest a plan for the improvement in the objective assessment of disability in hearing impaired patients. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The grades of Korean laws for IACI and DPW were converted into the impairment percentage rates used in the AMA guideline. We compared inter-guideline and inter-grade differences in impairment percentage rates.
RESULTS
We found several problematic areas in the grades of IACI and there were some differences in the understanding of the degree of disability in hearing impairment between guideline of the Korean laws and foreign guidelines.
CONCLUSION
Some changes are needed to be made in the guidelines for disability assessment in the Korean laws for IACI and DPW. Modification of the current grading system into the percentage rating system that is suited to the Korean sociocultural situation would be beneficial in the objective and balanced assessment of the disability of hearing impaired patients.