Working-age first-time hearing aid users’ self-reported outcomes

Figures & data

Table 1. Background characteristics of participants with hearing loss (N = 144).

Background characteristic	N	%
Gender
Male	73	51
Female	71	49
Form of hearing loss curve (PTA)
Sloping high	79	60
U-shape	19	15
Flat	33	25
N = 131
Number of HAs
Monaural	55	42
Binaural	77	58
N = 132
Type of HA
BTE	65	55
ITE	26	22
RITE	28	23
N = 119

BTE: behind the ear; ITE: in the ear; PTA: pure tone audiometry; RITE: receiver in the ear.

Table 2. Follow-up design and outcome measures before and during eight months of HA use.

Time	Before HA	After one month of HA use	After eight months (32 weeks) of HA use
Outcome measures	QDS	QDS	QDS
	HA-EXP-Q1	IOI-HA	IOI-HA
			HA-EXP-Q2
	Video recording (subsample)	Video recording (subsample)	Video recording (subsample)
		Interview (subsample)

HA-EXP-Q1: expectations of hearing aid use questionnaire; HA-EXP-Q2: experiences on hearing aid use questionnaire; IOI-HA: international outcome inventory for hearing aids; QDS: quantified Denver scale of communicative function.

Figure 1. Self-reported mean single item values (max 5) after one month and after eight months of HA use as measured by the International Outcome Inventory of Hearing Aid Use (IOI-HA). activity: residual activity limitations; benefit: benefits of using HA; HA use: hearing aid use; IOIHA1: after one month of HA use; IOIHA2: after eight months of HA use; impact: impact on others; personal: remaining personal restrictions; QOL: quality of life; satisfaction: satisfaction with HA; total: total IOI-HA score.

Figure 2. Change in self-reported social-communicative restrictions and 95% confidence intervals for male and female participants, and participants in total according to the mean single item score (max 5) from the QDS. Evaluation time points: 1: before HA, 2: after one month of HA use, and 3: after eight months of HA use.

Figure 3. Mean item scores (max 5) of self-reported expectations before HA use and experiences after eight months of HA use. Expect: expectations concerning HA use in HA-EXP-Q1; Exper: experiences concerning HA use in HA-EXP-Q2; Daily: managing everyday life; Handling: easy handling of HA; F to F: better hearing in two-party face-to-face conversation; Group: better hearing in multiparty group conversation; radioTV: better hearing when listening to radio/TV; Partic: easy participation in conversation.