Factors Affecting Long-Term Hearing Aid Success

Larry E. Humes; Lauren E. Humes

doi:10.1055/s-2004-823048

Seminars in Hearing, Table of Contents

Semin Hear 2004; 25(1): 63-72
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-823048

Factors Affecting Long-Term Hearing Aid Success

Larry E. Humes¹ Lauren E. Humes¹

¹Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Remembering Tom Tillman My memory of Tom Tillman is of a kind, patient, easy-going man with high standards and expectations for his students, but no higher than those to which he held himself accountable. He had a knack for attending to detail while simultaneously not losing sight of the big picture. Throughout my time at Northwestern University, and in contact with him afterwards, I always found him a gentleman and a scholar.Larry E. Humes

Abstract

The present article examines variables that contribute to differences in long-term hearing-aid success. Long-term hearing aid success is defined on the basis of the completion of a self-report Hearing Aid Interview (HAI) completed by 167 elderly hearing-aid wearers following an average of two years of hearing-aid use. Once the groups of successful and unsuccessful hearing-aid wearers have been identified, group differences for an assortment of variables measured prior to the hearing-aid fitting were examined, and a discriminant analysis was performed. In addition, rather than rely on the classification of wearers as successful or unsuccessful based on a somewhat arbitrary criterion HAI score, a linear regression analysis was conducted to predict the actual HAI score. Across all three statistical approaches to data analysis, the primary variables identified as potential predictors of long-term success were the amount of prior hearing-aid experience, the amount of high-frequency hearing loss, and a factor representing a combination of auditory-processing skills and hearing-aid expectations. Some other variables emerged from various analyses, but not consistently so.

KEYWORDS

Hearing aids - outcome measures - benefit - satisfaction - elderly

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References

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Larry E HumesPh.D.

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405

Email: humes@indiana.edu