Comparative Analyses between Receiver in the Canal Hearing Aids and Closed Fit Hearing Aids: Preliminary Study

Abstract

Received August 19, 2014 Revised October 7, 2014 Accepted October 23, 2014 Address for correspondence Jeong Hun Jang, MD Department of OtorhinolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 130 Dongdeok-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu 700-721, Korea Tel +82-53-420-5781 Fax +82-53-423-4524 E-mail jangjh@knu.ac.kr Background and ObjectivesZZThe aim of this study was to compare the degree of satisfaction of the patients, hearing loss type and severity, and satisfactory and unsatisfactory factors between closed fit hearing aid (HA) and receiver in the canal (RIC) HA. Subjects and MethodZZSeventeen patients with hearing loss participated in this study. All patients had used closed fit HAs prior to the study, with the ratio of those using in the canal (ITC) types and completely in the canal (CIC) types being 4:13. After a 2-week trial period of using RIC HAs, patients were evaluated for their satisfaction of using RIC HAs by filling out the questionnaire on the Korean version International Outcome Inventory for hearing aids (K-IOI-HA). ResultsZZThe visual analogue scale (VAS) score of closed fit HA was higher in the RIC-HAdissatisfied group (≤5, n=8) than in the RIC-HA-satisfied group (>5, n=9). The K-IOI-HA score of closed fit HA was higher than that of RIC HA in the RIC-HA-dissatisfied group and similar in the RIC-HA-satisfied group. Audiologically, air conduction and bone conduction thresholds at 500 Hz were lower in the RIC-HA-satisfied group than in the RIC-HA-dissatisfied group. In addition, the VAS score of RIC HA was negatively correlated with air and bone conduction thresholds and the K-IOI-HA score of RIC HA was positively correlated with speech discrimination score, whereas the VAS and K-IOI-HA scores of closed fit HA were not. ConclusionZZAmong the patients with closed fit HA, some patients indicated RIC HA to be suitable and showed intention to change. The HA should be prescribed firstly based on audiologic criteria, which could increase the subjective satisfaction and prevent poor compliance due to incongruity. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2015;58(4):249-56