Group follow-up of hearing aid patients has been implemented in a number of Audiology departments in the UK. This paper describes a retrospective analysis to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of group follow-up sessions compared with individual follow-up sessions for new NHS hearing aid users in one such department. Questionnaires were sent to 98 patients; half had attended group follow-up (GF) and half had attended individual follow-up (IF) sessions. The questionnaire assessed their use of, self-rated performance and satisfaction with the hearing aid. The two follow-up systems were also analysed with respect to staff time, costs and attendance rates. Results showed a significant difference between groups for self-rated performance (GF better than IF) but none for hours of use or satisfaction. GF attendees were generally more positive about their hearing aid, required fewer additional follow-up appointments and reported more benefit in various listening situations. Although GF sessions cost less to run, there is a minor capital cost in setting them up. Attendance rates were significantly poorer for GF sessions but this study did not address the reasons for this finding. Overall, results suggest that GF is a cost effective method of following up typical new hearing aid users and may convey distinct advantages to patients that attend. However, a group follow-up session may be a less attractive option than individual follow-up for some new hearing aid users.
For several years there has been interest in using objective measures to set channel-specific upper programming limits when programming the speech processor of cochlear implant users. The present study aims to add to previous reports by examining correlations between electrically evoked stapedius reflex threshold (ESRT) and a range of psychophysical loudness estimates in a group of 22 adult users of the MED-EL COMBI 40+ system. Thirteen of the 15 subjects (87%) had recordable stapedius reflexes. Psychophysical measures of threshold, maximum comfort level (MCL) and maximum acceptable loudness (MAL) were recorded. Results showed that mean ESRT was closest to the MCL using 500 ms burst ('MCL500'), with MCL50 (MCL using 50 ms burst) and MAL500 some 2dB and MAL50 3dB higher. Correlations between ESRT and the behavioural loudness judgements were highest for MCL500 (R = 0.69, p < 0.001) and slightly less for MAL500. These results confirm the ease of measuring ESRT in a clinical setting and that a high level of confidence can be placed on the use of these measures for setting processor maps in the absence of behavioural data.
The ability to directly measure the response to a pulse with the NRT opens the possibility of using this system to characterize the responses to more complex stimuli. An example is the responses to constant-amplitude pulse trains. With further changes in the software that controls the implant, it may be possible to characterize the responses to modulated pulse trains or other stimuli that better approximate the type of stimuli that are normally
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.