Objective assessment of hearing aid use

Hearing aid use was assessed using both objective (time recorded in the memory of the hearing aid) and subjective methods (interview and patient diary) in a clinical series of consecutive adult female and male Finnish and Norwegian hearing aid candidates (n = 84). The median study time was 34 days (minimum 21, maximum 73). Over a third of the subjects used their hearing aid for less than 4 hours a day according to an objective assessment. Both of the subjective methods tended to overestimate the use. This preliminary study shows that an objective assessment of hearing aid use is needed and the subjective methods must be validated.