What was the research about?
Hearing aids are an effective way to treat hearing loss. Until recently, people could only get hearing aids from a clinician trained to diagnose and treat hearing loss, such as an audiologist. People with perceived mild or moderate hearing difficulty can now buy hearing aids without seeing an audiologist. But people may need help getting the right fit. Fitting a hearing aid is the process of adjusting the hearing aid to meet a person’s needs, both in the way they fit in the ear and the way they sound.
In this study, the research team compared three approaches to fit hearing aids:
- Consumer Decides. People used an app in an iPad with photos and videos to guide them through the process of fitting the hearing aids. People listened to speech, music, and common sounds in four preprogrammed settings to choose the one that sounded best. They were then given their choice of hearing aids and wore them for six weeks.
- Efficient Fitting. Using the Consumer Decides process, people fit their own hearing aids and chose the sound setting they liked best. But the preprogrammed settings for this approach boosted sounds at higher pitches more than the Consumer Decides approach.
- Audiology-Based Usual Care. Audiologists talked with people about their hearing loss and about hearing aids. Then audiologists helped pick and set hearing aids based on hearing test results. The audiologists used specialized testing to confirm that the hearing aids were set correctly.
The research team wanted to learn if the two approaches for older adults to self-fit their hearing aids weren’t worse than the usual care provided by an audiologist.
What were the results?
After six months, Consumer Decides and Efficient Fitting weren’t worse than Audiology-Based Usual Care in improving:
- Everyday speech communication
- Emotional and social health
Who was in the study?
The study included 584 older adults who reported mild or moderate hearing difficulties. Patients had a hearing test at one of four clinics in Illinois and Texas. Among patients, 96% reported their race as White; 3% reported their ethnicity as Latino. The average age was 69, and 56% were men.
What did the research team do?
The research team assigned patients by chance to one of three approaches. Patients completed surveys at the start of the study and again six months later. Surveys asked about everyday speech communication and social health.
Audiologists, adults with hearing loss, advocacy organizations, and representatives from the hearing aid industry helped design the study.
What were the limits of the study?
Over-the-counter hearing aids weren’t available when the study started. Results may differ for over-the-counter hearing aids, which are limited in how much they can be customized.
Future research could look at approaches for fitting over-the-counter hearing aids that are now commercially available.
To learn more about this project, visit www.pcori.org/DharHumes547.
The full results are published in the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research: A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing the Effectiveness of Two Self-Fit Methods to the Best-Practices Method of Hearing Aid Fitting
The study results are also available on clinicaltrials.gov.
Where was the study conducted?
There are four P-CHAT research locations: three in the Chicago area and one in Galveston, TX.
- Northwestern University, Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning (Evanston, IL)
- Northwestern Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology (Chicago, IL)
- Sertoma Speech and Hearing Center, (Palos Hills, IL)
- University of Texas Medical Branch, (Galveston, TX)
For a list of study locations and directions, visit our research sites page.