Hearing Aid Benefit in Patients with High-Frequency Hearing Loss

Abstract Patients with hearing loss limited to frequencies above 2 kHz are often considered borderline candidates for hearing aids. In this study, we used the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit to access 134 patients' perceived benefit with a variety of linear hearing aids, some more capable than others at achieving prescribed frequency gain targets. We also sought to explore various audiologic and subject factors that might have led patients to report different degrees of success or failure with their hearing aids. Results demonstrate that subjects with hearing loss limited to frequencies above 2 kHz benefit significantly from amplification. However, the amount of benefit reported is mostly unrelated to the hearing aid gain and frequency response. Of numerous audiologic and demographic factors explored in the present study, the number of hours of hearing aid use per day turned out to be the most important single factor that was significantly related to the amount of reported hearing aid benefit. However, the predictive value of knowing how many hours per day subjects wore their aids, or any other combination of factors explored, was quite limited and only accounted for a small amount of the variability observed in user benefit. Abbreviations: AASC = Army Audiology and Speech Center, ANOVA = analysis of variance, AR = aural rehabilitation, AV = PHAB subscale Aversiveness, BN = PHAB subscale Background Noise, BTE = behind-the-ear hearing aid, DS = PHAB subscale Distortion, EC = PHAB subscale Ease of Communication, FT = PHAB subscale Familiar Talker, ITE = in-the-ear hearing aid, NAL-R = National Acoustic Laboratories-Revised presciptive hearing aid fitting formula, PHAB = Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit, RC = PHAB subscale Reduced Cues, RV = PHAB subscale Reverberation