Assessment of Objective Audiometry to Predict Subjective Satisfaction in Patients With Hearing Aids

To investigate the correlation of objective audiometry with user satisfaction as measured with the questionnaire scores.

Twenty patients with hearing loss, who agreed to wear a hearing aid and were referred for hearing aid fitting, were included in this prospective clinical study. All patients used the in-the-canal type of Wide7 hearing aid provided by BSL Co., Ltd. We performed the Korean version of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (K-HHIE) and the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (K-IOI-HA) before and 1, 3, and 6 months after wearing the hearing aid. We also performed pure tone audiometry (PTA), speech audiometry (SA), functional gain (FG), hearing in noise test (HINT), and central auditory processing disorder tests, such as frequency pattern test (CA-f), duration pattern test (CA-d), and dichotic test (CA-Di). Patients were divided into two groups (group A-HHIE, improved; group B-HHIE, same or worse) by comparing the score of K-HHIE before and 6 months after wearing the hearing aid. In the 6-month K-IOI-HA questionnaire, 21 points were considered as the average score. Based on this, we further divided patients into two groups (group A-IOI, >21 points; group B-IOI, ≤21 points).

Group A-HHIE included six patients and group B-HHIE included 14 patients. In PTA, SA, HINT, CA-d, and CA-Di, group A-HHIE showed higher improvements than group B-HHIE, which were not statistically significant. Group A-IOI included 12 patients and group B-IOI included eight patients. No statistically significant difference was noted in the improvement of audiometric results over a period of 6 months after wearing the hearing aid between groups A-IOI and B-IOI.

There were no significant and consistent audiometric results to reflect patient's satisfaction with the hearing aid. Therefore, when analyzing the hearing aid-fitting outcome, both the objective audiometric tests and subjective questionnaire should be performed together for validating hearing aid performance.