Maturation of hearing aid benefit: objective and subjective measurements

The goals of this investigation were to determine whether hearing aid benefit improved significantly over the first 10 weeks of hearing aid use and whether time-related changes in benefit (if any) were affected by the type of benefit measurement (i.e., objective or subjective). A total of 17 hearing-impaired subjects participated, with different subjects completing different phases of the study. Benefit was measured soon after the hearing aid fitting and again after 10 weeks of adjustment to hearing aid use. Objective benefit data were determined using the Connected Speech Test. No significant changes in objective benefit were noted in noisy or reverberant listening environments when visual cues were available. However, in a low-noise setting and in a noisy setting without visual cues, improvements in objective benefit were seen over time. Subjective benefit data were derived from responses to the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit. These data indicated significant benefit improvement over time in all five types of daily life situations assessed, although the improvement was small in reverberant and noisy environments. Significant, but modest, correlations were found between objective and subjective data for low-noise and reverberant listening environments. Comparison of experienced and novice hearing aid wearers suggested that although experienced wearers obtain more benefit than novice wearers, they evidence similar time-related changes in benefit during the first 10 weeks of new hearing aid use.