TIMELY APPLICATION OF HEARING AIDS HELPS PRESERVE SPEECH DISCRIMINATION ABILITY

Abstract

Background Hearing damage has been related to certain brain conditions, particularly cognitive impairment. Hearing aids are commonly prescribed to compensate for hearing loss. In the current study, the time from when a hearing aid was first used by a patient was studied in terms of their speech discrimination ability in comparison with matched individuals who used no hearing aids. Material and methods Some 204 patients were enrolled and classified into two groups: 102 patients willing to use a hearing aid as soon as their hearing loss was diagnosed (Aided Group) and 102 patients who were also diagnosed with hearing loss but did not adopt hearing aids (Unaided group). The mean hearing threshold (HT) at octave intervals from 125 to 8000 Hz, speech reception threshold (SRT), and speech discrimination score (SDS) were compared between the two groups of patients at 18 and 36 months. Results According to measurements 36 months after a patient’s first attendance, patients who did not use a hearing aid immediately had significantly lower SDS scores compared to patients who decided to use hearing aids early on. This clearly demonstrates that timely application of hearing aids can prevent the loss of speech perception capabilities. Conclusions It is suggested that the golden time for hearing aid application is important. Hearing aids worn during the early stages of hearing loss can lead to improved speech discrimination ability. If there is hearing loss while discrimination is good (80% or higher), a hearing aid will be very useful. However, if discrimination is poor the results will not be as good.