Individual Follow-Up of Hearing and Fitting

Abstract

Fifty new hearing aid users were summoned to individual follow-up about one year after they had completed their hearing aid fitting. About 30% of the hearing impaired seldom used their hearing aid (< 1 h/day). The hearing aid was mainly used in conversation between two, conversation in groups, listening to TV/radio, etc. The hearing impaired who had a steep hearing loss used the aid to a lesser extent. There is a strong need of follow-up visits. Reliability of the subject's own judgement was good.

Gender and Hearing Aids: Patterns of Use and Determinants of Nonregular Use

“…On the other hand, a steeper audiogram slope was associated with an increased likelihood of nonregular use in men but not in women. Steeper audiogram slopes, which were observed more often in men than in women, have been associated with less frequent hearing aid use in previous studies (Ovegard & Ramstrom 1994). These divergent associations may be related to known gender differences in the auditory system with respect to hearing sensitivity and binaural tasks (McFadden 1998;Helzner et al 2005;Blanchet et al 2008;Ciletti & Flamme 2008;Kim et al 2010).…”

“…They show that hearing aid use depends on other outcome factors such as benefit, satisfaction, aided performance in speech recognition, and sound quality (Humes 1999;Smeeth et al 2002;Hickson et al 2010). Associations of hearing aid use are also described with severity and configuration of hearing loss, previous experience with hearing aids, and reported hearing and communication difficulties (Ovegard & Ramstrom 1994;Cox et al 2003;Humes 2003;Hickson 2006;Davis et al 2007). Further factors relate to personality, expectations, motivations, and attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids; others consist of age-related factors such as cognitive function, manual dexterity, and visual acuity (Hanratty & Lawlor 2000;Erber 2003;Humes 2003;Saunders et al 2005a;Hickson 2006).…”

“…Men demonstrate a greater age-related hearing loss in the high frequencies and women in the low frequencies (Helzner et al 2005;Blanchet et al 2008;Ciletti & Flamme 2008;Kim et al 2010). Men also usually demonstrate steeper audiogram slopes (Ovegard & Ramstrom 1994). Gender differences in the processing of binaural tasks have been observed.…”

A bone-anchored hearing aid for patients with pure sensorineural hearing impairment: A pilot study

“…In the same study, people who did not own hearing aids reported the following reasons for not buying them (in priority order): stigma; HI not serious enough; uncomfortable to use; and devices do not perform well or cannot solve the hearing problem (Kochkin, 1993). Furthermore, in a follow-up study of new hearing aid users in Sweden, Ovegård & Ramström (1994) reported that more than 25% of them were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their aid, and almost half of them used their hearing aid less than 2 h/day. Many sensorineural hearing-impaired persons have a high frequency HI.…”

Impacto psicosocial de los productos y tecnologías de apoyo para la comunicación en personas con discapacidad auditiva y personas sordas

“…Otro asunto de interés es indagar sobre el abandono o falta de uso de este tipo de productos de apoyo de amplificación. Algunos autores han estimado que la interrupción en el uso de audífonos en pacientes adultos mayores llega al 30 % (Oyegard & Ramstrom, 1994).…”