Real-World Hearing Aid Usage Patterns and Smartphone Connectivity

Abstract

Data for monitoring individual hearing aid usage has historically been limited to retrospective questionnaires or data logged intrinsically in the hearing aid cumulatively over time (e. g., days or more). This limits the investigation of longitudinal interactions between hearing aid use and environmental or behavioral factors. Recently it has become possible to analyze remotely logged hearing aid data from in-market and smartphone compatible hearing aids. This can provide access to novel insights about individual hearing aid usage patterns and their association to environmental factors. Here, we use remotely logged longitudinal data from 64 hearing aid users to establish basic norms regarding smartphone connectivity (i.e., comparing remotely logged data with cumulative true hearing aid on-time) and to assess whether such data can provide representative information about ecological usage patterns. The remotely logged data consists of minute-by-minute timestamped logs of cumulative hearing aid on-time and characteristics of the momentary acoustic environment. Using K-means clustering, we demonstrate that hourly hearing aid usage patterns (i.e., usage as minutes/hour) across participants are separated by four clusters that account for almost 50% of the day-to-day variation. The clusters indicate that hearing aids are worn either sparsely throughout the day; early morning to afternoon; from noon to late evening; or across the day from morning to late evening. Using linear mixed-effects regression modeling, we document significant associations between daily signal-to-noise, sound intensity, and sound diversity with hearing aid usage. Participants encounter louder, noisier, and more diverse sound environments the longer the hearing aids are worn. Finally, we find that remote logging via smartphones underestimates the daily hearing aid usage with a pooled median of 1.25 h, suggesting an overall connectivity of 85%. The 1.25 h difference is constant across days varying in total hearing aid on-time, and across participants varying in average daily hearing aid-on-time, and it does not depend on the identified patterns of daily hearing aid usage. In sum, remote data logging with hearing aids has high representativeness and face-validity, and can offer ecologically true information about individual usage patterns and the interaction between usage and everyday contexts.

Auditory Environments and Hearing Aid Feature Activation Among Younger and Older Listeners in an Urban and Rural Area

“…Sound levels found in this study were overall higher and more varied than those found by Christensen et al (2021a,b). Using a similar method, these authors found a grand median SPL among 98 hearing aid users of 54.42 dB (SD = 6.68 dB).…”

“…Because the devices were programmed to collect sound levels throughout the day, we believe these data are reasonably representative. However, we do now know if comparing the overall mean sound level is the best indicator of differences in auditory environments between groups, as there could be fluctuations in sound level throughout the day (Christensen et al 2021a,b). In future work, additional analysis techniques could be implemented to identify how patterns of auditory environments encountered over time differ between groups.…”

Preliminary Evaluation of Automated Speech Recognition Apps for the Hearing Impaired and Deaf

“…When measuring performance in noise, an adaptive SNR procedure was used. The effect of noise could be more extensively studied by evaluating ASR by determining the Word Recognition Score (the convention in the field of audiology) or the Word Error Rate (the convention in the field of ASR research) on several fixed SNR levels (e.g.,−5, 0, +5 and +10 dB SNR) that correspond to realistic listening conditions for people using a hearing aid ( 36 ). For ecological valid measures, the effect of different fluctuating noise maskers should be considered ( 37 , 38 ).…”

Hearing Aid Use Time Is Causally Influenced by Psychological Parameters in Mildly Distressed Patients with Chronic Tinnitus and Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss

“…Despite its putative importance and comparatively easy influenceability, research at the junction of HA use time and associated psychological influences in adults is sparse [ 18 ]. The majority of studies focuses on audiological predictors of HA use [ 19 ] oand psychological influences on HL that are either unsusceptible to HA use [ 20 ] or improve following hearing amplification [ 21 ]. “Previously identified psychological predictors of HA nonuse include ‘perceived stigma’, ‘cosmetic concerns’, ‘disappointment with HA’, ‘oversold expectations’, or ‘family pressure to get HAs’ [ 22 ].…”