ID Number		1710
Study Type		Engineering & Physics
Model		Evaluation of hearing aids and satisfaction with mobile phone use
Details		Hearing loss grew to 31.5 million in the US in 2005, with a new user rate increasing to 39%, average age to 70 years, and average income to $55,000. In one study, hearing aid users (n = 1511, random users equally distributed across strata) were surveyed for strata distribution and satisfaction. The authors report average age = 71. The self-reported strata were Mild = 9%, Moderate = 52%, Severe = 35%, and Profound = 4%. Model types were BTE = 18%, ITE-full = 16%, ITE-partial = 12%, ITC-visible = 41%, ITC-invisible = 13%. Additional statistics included 84% bilateral loss, 60% male, 64% married, 66% retired, 62% with no college degree. 60% self-reported difficulty with background noise. 25% reported use of either directional microphones or telecoils. Regarding satisfaction, the authors report 71% satisfied with HA 0-5 yrs old, and 78% satisfied with HA 1 yr old or less. Overall satisfaction rate across all strata with land-line phones was 69%. Regarding mobile phone satisfaction, 60% of users were satisfied, 20% were neutral, and 20% were dissatisfied. While satisfaction with mobile phones was reported to generally correspond with severity of hearing loss, the majority (50%) of dissatisfied users choose the most dissatisfied category (of 4 incremental categories for dissatisfaction) suggesting a simple linear correlation may not exist. This satisfaction rate was approximately equivalent to listening in a school / classroom situation. Finally, the increase in digital HA technology was reported to increase overall satisfaction from ~5% in 1998 to ~90% in 2005. This suggests downstream surveys enriched in newer HA types might achieve significantly higher satisfaction rates under various listening conditions, for example with mobile phones. More recent studies segment hearing loss into 10 deciles, and report 70% of adults with bilateral loss over all deciles do not wear hearing aids. 50 % of adults with severe and 65% of adults with profound hearing loss do not wear hearing aids - the higher degree of hearing loss the greater chance of having a hearing aid. The principle reasons for not wearing hearing aids (from 2004 survey data of 10,560 people with hearing loss) in ascending order were stigma, knowledge, attitute toward HA, minimilization, financial, and type of hearing loss (e.g., high / low frequency, tinnitus, nerve deafness, unilateral)
Findings		Not Applicable to Bioeffects
Status		Completed With Publication
Principal Investigator		Better Hearing Inst, USA - skochkin@betterhearing.org
Funding Agency		Private/Instit.
Country		UNITED STATES
References		Kochkin, S The Hearing Journal, (2007) 60:27-43 Kochkin, S The Hearing Journal, (2005) 58:30-37 Kochkin, S The Hearing Review, (2007) 12:16-27
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