Outcome assessment alternatives for young children during the first 12 months after pediatric hearing-aid fittings.
OBJECTIVE
Perform longitudinal evaluations of young children during the first 12 months after initial hearing-aid fitting. Document evidence of early prelingual auditory development (EPLAD), identify factors that affect EPLAD, and define performance milestones that can guide best practices.


METHODS
Unblinded, prospective, within-subject, repeated-measures design. Audiological measures and measures of EPLAD were taken at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months after hearing-aid fitting.


METHODS
Subjects were 45 pediatric patients initially fitted with hearing aids between 1 and 5.5 years of age. Four groups were formed for analysis purposes based on severity of hearing loss (moderate-to-severe and profound) and initial fitting age (≤ 30 months and > 30 months).


RESULTS
All groups exhibited statistically significant increases in EPLAD within six months of hearing-aid fitting, and those with profound losses exhibited further statistically significant improvement between six and 12 months. Similar EPLAD levels were reached at 12 months regardless of severity of hearing loss. The EPLAD trajectory is similar to that following early cochlear implantation.


CONCLUSIONS
Measures of EPLAD provide a means of evaluating outcomes following early pediatric hearing-aid intervention, supplementing behavioral audiological measures.
West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, PR China.
Yun
Y
Zheng
Gang
G
Li
Zhao-Li
ZL
Meng
Ke
K
Xu
Yong
Y
Tao
Kai
K
Wang
Sigfrid D
SD
Soli
D001307:Auditory Perception; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003638:Deafness / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception