Nonuniformities in Self-Assessed Outcomes of Hearing Aid Use

Abstract

Measures of outcome, following hearing aid fitting, that involve self-assessment procedures addressed to uses and benefits can produce nonuniform variations in results. These may be due to measurement system problems (noise, measurement error), or they may reflect systematic factors whose influence remains to be made more explicit. Examples are drawn from literature concerning the use and nonuse of hearing aids, the influence of counselling on the extent of hearing aid use, the time course of adaptation to hearing aid, nonuse and particular uses of cochlear implants, fitting of behind the ear versus in the ear, and one versus two hearing aids. It is argued that attention to contexts of fitting may help in interpreting inconsistent or unexpected results in this literature. Finally, a comment is made concerning self-assessment procedures that are tailored to individual circumstances rather than applied uniformly across different people.

Abbreviations: BTE = behind the ear; CIC = completely in the canal; HHIE = Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly; ITE = in the ear

Key Words

Hearing aid - hearing disability - hearing handicap - hearing impairment - outcome measures - self-assessment

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