Self-report outcome in new hearing-aid users: Longitudinal trends and relationships between subjective measures of benefit and satisfaction

Abstract

This study focussed on self-report outcome in new hearing-aid users. The objectives of the experiment were changes in self-report outcome over time, and relationships between different subjective measures of benefit and satisfaction. Four outcome inventories and a questionnaire on auditory lifestyle were administered to 25 hearing-aid users repeatedly after hearing-aid fitting, and assessments took place one week, four weeks, and 13 weeks after hearing-aid provision. The results showed that, for first-time users who used their hearing aids more than four hours per day, self-reported outcome increased over 13 weeks in some scales, although there was no change in amplification during this time. Furthermore, it was found that, for data collected immediately post-fitting, some subscales were much less face valid than for data collected later. This result indicates that the way in which hearing-aid users assess outcome changes over time. The practical consequence of the results is that early self-report outcome assessment may be misleading for some self-report outcome schemes.

Figures

Figure 1

Range of hearing threshold levels of the subjects and key audiometric values with standard deviation bars (±s.d.). The typical audiogram is composed by connecting with straight lines the following key audiometric points through the average values: Hearing level (HL) at 250 Hz, HL at the corner frequency, HL one octave above the corner frequency and HL at 8000 Hz.

Figure 2

Test-retest scores for Auditory Lifestyle and Demand (ALD). Regression line (solid line) and 95% confidence interval for the regression line (dashed lines) are also shown.

Figure 3

Increase in self-report outcome from session 1 to session 3 of the main scales, GHABP benefit, IOI-HA global score, HAPQ average, and SADL global score. The increase is shown by circles for first-time users, and by diamonds for the experienced users. The vertical bars denote 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 4

As Figure 3 for first-time users with more than four hours of daily hearing-aid use, compared to a control group of experienced users, and aid users with less than four hours of daily hearing-aid use.