Hearing aid candidates' perceptions on amplification systems| A pre-fitting to post-fitting anaylsis

Hearing aid candidates' perceptions on amplification systems: a pre-fitting to post-fitting analysisThe purpose of the present study was to assess the attitudes and belief systems of first-time hearing aid users at three points in time: prior to any audiological testing, following initial audiological testing and discussion of those test results with the audiologist, and following a 30 day trial with a hearing aid.A questionnaire was developed which required subjects to rank their agreement or disagreemment, on a scale of one to five, with a series of statements regarding hearing loss and hearing aids.Three audiological facilities participated in distributing the questionnaires to their clients.Seventeen complete sets of questionnaires were returned to the investigator.The questionnaires were evaluated for change across the three asessment times.The findings of this study indicated that the subjects, as a group, did not adhere to most of the common misconceptions about hearing loss and hearing aids prior to obtaining audiological information and, furthermore, their opinions were not strongly altered by the trial use of a hearing aid.The subjects also expressed a high degree of confidence in the audiologists who fit them.All of the subjects were satisfied with their fittings and purchased their hearing aid(s).The results are discussed in view of the limitations imposed by the low return rate and poor audiologist cooperation.