Figure 1. Schematic diagram of WHO international classification standard of function, disability and health.
Under this standard framework, aging is defined as a health condition. The World Health Organization explains the meaning of various elements of health status as follows: human function refers to the physiological function of human body, including psychological function; Structure refers to various anatomical parts and organs of the human body, such as limbs; An activity refers to an individual performing a task or action; Participation means putting yourself into real life; Environmental factors include the physical, social and landscape environment that constitutes people's survival and life.
Contrary to these terms are injury, activity restriction and participation restriction. The World Health Organization shows that these factors are related in many ways. For example, strengthening participation can help restore some injuries; At the same time, the model also shows that environmental and individual factors will affect people's function, structure, activities and participation, thus forming the social background of human life.
As can be seen from Figure 2 and Figure 3, serious hearing loss does not necessarily cause serious consequences. On the contrary, mild hearing loss will also have a great negative impact on activities and participation. The interaction between various factors in the WHO model is very important, and this model can better help the elderly hearing-impaired patients.
Figure 4 clearly illustrates the dynamic relationship between communication elements and quality of life. Obviously, factors including damage, activities and participation can have different effects on the quality of life of the elderly, which can not only improve the quality of life, but also reduce the quality of life. This is what we must consider when designing hearing rehabilitation for the elderly.
The WHO model aims to "provide a unified and standard language and corresponding framework to describe medical and health conditions". This model and its detailed classification method can make us better understand and learn the medical and health situation, results and influencing factors; Health care workers, researchers, government decision makers, the public and the disabled themselves can use the same language to describe medical and health conditions, thus improving communication among them; The data obtained in different countries, different medical and health industries, different services and different times can be compared with each other; It can provide system code for medical and health information system. At present, this model of the World Health Organization has been welcomed by many experts, medical researchers, clinical audiologists and hearing rehabilitation experts all over the world, and has become an effective statistical tool, educational tool and clinical evaluation tool to improve the hearing rehabilitation service for the elderly. Therefore, we must realize that this model of the World Health Organization plays a very important role in helping audiologists improve the quality of hearing rehabilitation for the elderly: first, we can use this model to reduce the impact of hearing loss on the daily life of the elderly; Second, let's use international terms to describe the influence of health status on human function; Third, let audiologists understand that our clinical work is not only to detect hearing loss, but more importantly, to fully realize the serious consequences of hearing loss on the daily activities and participation of the elderly. (Domestic editor of China Audiology Network)