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Abstract
Objective: To evaluate whether clinician continuity is associated with successful hearing aid outcomes. Design: A prospective cohort study. Clinician continuity was defined as occurring when a patient was cared for by the same clinician for the hearing assessment, hearing aid selection process, hearing aid fitting and programming, and subsequent hearing aid fine tuning appointments. The hearing aid outcome measures included self-reported hearing aid use, benefit and satisfaction as well as self-reported handling skills and problems experienced with hearing aids. Study sample: Four hundred and sixty-eight adult hearing aid users (mean age 73.9 years ±10.9) and 26 qualified audiologists (mean age 34 years ±6.34) recruited from a single hearing clinic in Perth, Western Australia. Results: There were no significant differences in hearing aid outcomes between participants who experienced clinician continuity and those who did not. Conclusions: Within a controlled practice setting, hearing aid outcomes may not be adversely effected if services are provided by more than one clinician.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Ear Science Institute Australia with participant recruitment, and the participants for devoting their time to this study. The authors would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Alex Whitman and Jordan Bishop with data entry.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. R Bennett is funded by an Australian postgraduate award scholarship through the School of Surgery at The University of Western Australia.