On average, participants recognized approximately 75% of the HAO content, which is encouraging from a clinical standpoint, providing support for the efficacy of the HAO and the time audiologists spend in completing it. Moreover, recognition of HAO content improved when tested at 1 month, suggesting audiologists may expect their patients to be aware of a majority of hearing aid use and care information following the hearing aid trial period.
Recall of hearing aid orientation (HAO) information by new hearing aid users was assessed in this pilot study. Twenty-eight older adults completed a 25-item recall test of hearing aid knowledge that contained questions targeting information presented during a typical HAO. The mean recall score immediately following the HAO was 80%. The mean recall score at the hearing aid follow-up 4 weeks later was 77%, indicating that most of the information was retained. Recall scores were not significantly different based on time of testing. Although a substantial amount of hearing aid use and care information was reported at the hearing aid follow-up, some important information was forgotten by several participants. These preliminary results suggest the need for greater focus on certain important hearing aid use and care information during the HAO.Learning Outcomes: As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to (1) identify patient memory performance results from studies in other areas of health care, (2) list three types of memory tasks that may be used to assess patients' memory for HAO information, (3) list two hearing aid use and care topics patients have difficulty remembering, and (4) describe two methods to enhance memory for HAO content.When patients are first fit with hearing aids, they are provided with a hearing aid orientation (HAO) during which the audiologist disseminates hearing aid use and care information, troubleshooting tips, and realistic expectations of hearing aid use. According to a recent consumer survey, the HAO takes about 45 minutes. 1 Thus, audiologists devote a good
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.