Use of Audiometric Variables to Differentiate Groups of Adults Based on Hearing Aid Ownership and Use

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between multiple audiometric variables and hearing aid ownership and use for first-time hearing aid candidates. In this study, use was defined as a participant report of hearing aid use 1 year following the initial evaluation. Method: Charts were reviewed and data were collected from the initial hearing evaluations of 144 adults with sensorineural hearing loss who presented for services and were candidates for amplification. The following audiomet- ric data were gathered from each participant: (a) pure-tone air conduction thresholds, (b) speech recognition thresholds (SRTs), (c) word recognition scores (WRSs), and (d) sig- nal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss. In addition, each audiogram was classified as falling within or outside an area of the audiogram as described by Erber (2002, 2003). Participants were divided into 3 groups: (a) those who purchased hear- ing aids and reported wearing them 1 year following their initial evaluation (n = 51), (b) those who purchased hearing aids and rejected them during the first year following their initial evaluation (n = 48), and (c) those who received a recommendation for hearing aids but did not purchase any (n = 45). T