Primarily to understand whether clinically relevant factors affect the International Outcome Inventory (IOI-HA) scores and to examine if IOI-HA scores improve when renewing the hearing aids (HA) fo...

The aim of this study was to determine whether the differences in insertion gains from the first fit to generic prescriptions of hearing aids can predict the self-reported hearing aid (HA) outcomes...

(1) Background: To improve hearing-aid rehabilitation, the Danish ‘Better hEAring Rehabilitation’ (BEAR) project recently developed methods for individual hearing loss characterization and hearing-aid fitting. Four auditory profiles differing in terms of audiometric hearing loss and supra-threshold hearing abilities were identified. To enable auditory profile-based hearing-aid treatment, a fitting rationale leveraging differences in gain prescription and signal-to-noise (SNR) improvement was developed. This report describes the translation of this rationale to clinical devices supplied by three industrial partners. (2) Methods: Regarding the SNR improvement, advanced feature settings were proposed and verified based on free-field measurements made with an acoustic mannikin fitted with the different hearing aids. Regarding the gain prescription, a clinically feasible fitting tool and procedure based on real-ear gain adjustments were developed. (3) Results: Analyses of the collected real-ear gain and SNR improvement data confirmed the feasibility of the clinical implementation. Differences between the auditory profile-based fitting strategy and a current ‘best practice’ procedure based on the NAL-NL2 fitting rule were verified and are discussed in terms of limitations and future perspectives. (4) Conclusion: Based on a joint effort from academic and industrial partners, the BEAR fitting rationale was transferred to commercially available hearing aids.

Purpose: This study was aimed at understanding the effect of time taken to adapt to the new hearing aids (HAs) and the timeline of HA adjustments performed over more than a year of rehabilitation on self-reported HA outcomes. Method: A self-report of the time it took to get accustomed to the new HAs and adjustment of the HAs during a year of rehabilitation collected from 690 HA users using a nonstandardized questionnaire were analyzed. The abbreviated version of the Speech, Spatial, and Quality of Hearing questionnaire and the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids were used as the self-reported HA outcome. Result: Out of 690 participants, 442 (64%) got accustomed to HAs within 2 months. Ninety-one participants (13%) did not get accustomed to the HAs at all, out of which 74 (81%) were first-time HA users. Eighty-four participants (12%) did not receive any HA adjustments after their initial fitting, and 49 (7%) had their HAs adjusted four or more times during the 1 year of rehabilitation. Three hundred ninety (57%) participants got their HA adjusted only at the 2-month follow-up visit, showing the intent to adjust given an opportunity. The stepwise multiple linear regression results showed the significant impact of getting accustomed to the HA and having HA adjusted at multiple instances on the self-reported HA outcomes. Conclusion: This study showed the importance of getting accustomed to the HA and having a minimal number of adjustments to have a better long-term self-reported HA outcome.

The retrospective reporting of users’ hearing aid (HA) usage can provide insight into individualized HA usage patterns. Understanding these HA usage patterns can help to provide a tailored solution to meet the usage needs of HA users. This study aims to understand the HA usage pattern in daily-life situations from self-reported data and to examine its relationship to self-reported outcomes. A total of 1537 participants who responded to questions related to situations where they always took off or put on the HAs were included in the study. A latent class analysis was performed to stratify the HA users according to their HA usage pattern. The results showed distinct usage patterns in the latent classes derived for both scenarios. The demographics, socio-economic indicators, hearing loss, and user-related factors were found to impact HA usage. The results showed that the HA users who reported using the HAs all the time (regular users) had better self-reported HA outcomes than situational users, situational non-users, and non-users. The study explained the underlying distinct HA usage pattern from self-reported questionnaires using latent class analysis. The results emphasized the importance of regular use of HAs for a better self-reported HA outcome.