The aim of the survey was to explore the importance of hearing in different areas of life. In order to find out what effect hearing has in various contexts, one group of respondents were people who were especially  involved with the topic of “hearing” because they themselves are affected by hearing loss. A further distinction was made here between respondents with and without hearing aids (“owners” and “non-owners” of hearing aids). A group of people with normal hearing served as a comparison group (“control group”). And in order to find out something about the significance of hearing within families and partnerships, a fourth group was surveyed: close relatives of people with hearing loss. For the purposes of the study, “close relatives” were defined as partners, children, parents or siblings.

All four groups were asked some of the same questions, and some questions that covered the same ground. From the different responses given by the four groups, we can assess the relative significance of hearing. What is especially interesting here is the comparison of the two groups “with a hearing aid” and “without a hearing aid” – this is the area which highlights the difference between cases of corrected and untreated hearing loss.