The use of ecological momentary assessment in hearing research and future clinical applications

To obtain real-world insights into the hearing difficulties of individuals, the field of hearing research has recently started to adopt ecological momentary assessment. Using this approach, study participants describe their experiences in real time, in their own natural environment. This paper describes the use of ecological momentary assessment in hearing research to date. Several studies have shown the approach is feasible and has good construct validity for use with adults with hearing impairment and/or tinnitus. Two recent studies conducted by the authors are described. The first study investigated the listening experiences of older adults with mild hearing impairment and concluded that ecological momentary assessment provided group and individual data which highlighted the between-subject variability in this clinical population. The second study investigated the difference that the provision of hearing aids could make for older adults with mild hearing impairment. The pilot study indicated that ecological momentary assessment could be successfully used in intervention studies to measure, for example, individual hearing aid benefit, which may extend beyond improved speech understanding. The study also revealed the potential for ecological momentary assessment as a tool for clinical practice and decision-making. Ecological momentary assessment can result in a rich array of research data if specific study design guidelines, presented in this paper, are followed. The development of a clinical ecological momentary assessment tool would provide clinicians an individualized outcome measure and facilitate the adoption of a greater degree of client- and family-centeredness, thereby improving rehabilitation outcomes.