Benefit acclimatization in elderly hearing aid users

A previous study from this laboratory indicated that the benefit obtained from a hearing aid in a noisy environment might increase over the first few months of hearing aid use. It was hypothesized that this acclimatization of benefit was due to a process in which the individual optimized his/her use of modified or newly available high-frequency acoustic speech cues. This investigation further explored the effect in 22 elderly individuals with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing losses, fitted unilaterally with hearing aids. None of the subjects was a current or recent hearing aid wearer. Speech intelligibility testing over a 12-week post-fitting period indicated that a significant improvement in benefit was seen for the group as a whole, probably beginning after about 6 weeks of regular hearing aid use. However, the magnitude of improvement was very small for most subjects. Only three individuals experienced a dramatic improvement in their benefit for speech in noise over this period. No evidence was found for a specific role of high-frequency cues. Seven subjects participated in a long-term follow-up in which benefit was measured after several months of use of their newly acquired personal hearing aids. Further increase in benefit was noted but was due exclusively to a decline in performance for unaided listening.