Self-report outcome in new hearing-aid users: Longitudinal trends and relationships between subjective measures of benefit and satisfaction.
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.
Vestergaard
Martin D
MD
Ørsted-DTU Acoustic Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark. mdv23@cam.ac.uk
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000523:psychology*; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013067:Speech Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome