Awareness of social care needs in people with epilepsy and intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: Nearly a quarter of people with intellectual disability (ID) have epilepsy with large numbers experiencing drug-resistant epilepsy, and premature mortality. To mitigate epilepsy risks the environment and social care needs, particularly in professional care settings, need to be met. PURPOSE: To compare professional care groups as regards their subjective confidence and perceived responsibility when managing the need of people with ID and epilepsy. METHOD: A multi-agency expert panel developed a questionnaire with embedded case vignettes with quantitative and qualitative elements to understand training and confidence in the health and social determinants of people with ID and epilepsy. The cross-sectional survey was disseminated amongst health and social care professionals working with people with ID in the UK using an exponential non-discriminative snow-balling methodology. Group comparisons were undertaken using suitable statistical tests including Fisher's exact, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney. Bonferroni correction was applied to significant (p < 0.05) results. Content analysis was conducted and relevant categories and themes were identified. RESULTS: Social and health professionals (n = 54) rated their confidence to manage the needs of people with ID and epilepsy equally. Health professionals showed better awareness (p < 0.001) of the findings/recommendations of the latest evidence on premature deaths and identifying and managing epilepsy-related risks, including the relevance of nocturnal monitoring. The content analysis highlighted the need for clearer roles, improved care pathways, better epilepsy-specific knowledge, increased resources, and better multi-disciplinary work. CONCLUSIONS: A gap exists between health and social care professionals in awareness of epilepsy needs for people with ID, requiring essential training and national pathways.

Perceived sound quality in a hearing aid with vented and closed earmould equalized in frequency response.

Nine normal-hearing subjects listened to speech and music in a hearing aid, either through a vented earmould or a closed earmould. The complex frequency responses of the two systems were made equal by compensating the aid and closed mould combination with a digital filter. The subjects rated the perceived sound quality of the systems on seven perceptual scales and a scale for overall impression. The results of the ratings support the hypothesis that there is no difference in perceived sound quality between vented and closed earmoulds that are equalized in frequency response, provided that the perceived loudness is the same in both cases.

Frequency discrimination for bands of noise.

Recoding of speech in order to improve discrimination for profoundly deaf people has been tried in various ways. One of these is frequency transposition of voiceless consonants. Some authors report positive and very promising results. Others, however, have not found any significant difference when using control groups with normal amplification. One reason might be a poor frequency discrimination. Is it possible to establish what minimum hearing capacity the listener must show for a successful use of frequency transposition? Using noise bands with different Q factors and varying the levels, the thresholds as minimum midfrequency shift have been measured. Great individual variations have been shown. There is a significant difference between (1) threshold values at different Q factors, (2) threshold values at different frequencies, and (3) threshold values for increasing and decreasing frequency, position of deltaf. There is a significant interaction between (1) frequency and position of deltaf, (2) Q factor and position of deltaf, and (3) between Q factor and frequency. There is also a significant triple interaction between Q factor, frequency, and position of deltaf.