Hearing Aid Use in Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss: A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Pediatric Otolaryngology
• Quality of Life Research

Background:

• Unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in children can impact quality of life (QOL) and listening abilities.
• Baseline accommodations like assistive listening devices and strategic seating are often used.
• The added benefit of hearing aids (HA) in conjunction with these accommodations requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of hearing aid (HA) use, combined with baseline accommodations, on QOL and listening difficulties in children with mild to moderately severe unilateral hearing loss (UHL).
• To compare outcomes between children using HAs with accommodations versus those using only baseline accommodations.

Main Methods:

• A randomized crossover trial involving 37 children aged 6-12 years with mild to moderately severe UHL.
• Participants were assigned to two groups: one group used baseline accommodations followed by HA with accommodations, and the other group used HA with accommodations followed by baseline accommodations.
• QOL and listening difficulty surveys were administered at 6-week intervals over two 12-week periods.

Main Results:

• A total of 34 children completed the study.
• Average survey scores were significantly higher during the hearing aid (HA) interval (77.79) compared to the baseline accommodations-only interval (69.67) (P = .036).
• No significant differences in scores were found between the trial arms during comparable intervention periods.

Conclusions:

• Hearing aid use, in addition to baseline accommodations, led to significant improvements in hearing-related quality of life and listening abilities for children with mild to moderately severe UHL.
• The findings support the integration of hearing aids as an effective intervention for this pediatric population.
• Further research can explore long-term effects and optimal HA fitting strategies for UHL in children.