Use of post-aural aids by National Health Service patients.

Abstract

The amount of use made of post-aural aids issued through the National Health Service was investigated by monitoring the discharge rate of zinc air cells supplied to two matched groups of patients. Each group consisted of 36 subjects, the first group received an aid in the normal routine manner but without any extra counselling. The second group received both pre- and post-issue counselling. Subjective reports for the patients on use showed some degree of exaggeration, though not as much as was seen in a previous study of users of body-worn aids. Use was substantially greater with the head-worn aids than with the body-worn models previously supplied through the NHS. Use has at least doubled on average and the percentage of non-users has fallen. Counselling (as provided through the Manchester Scheme) appears to effect a significant reduction in the percentage of non-users regardless of the type of aid supplied. Use among those receiving counselling is significantly greater than in those not so being helped. Use tends to diminish with increasing age of the subjects on application for assistance. It tends to increase over the first year of use, but the rate of change is dependent on many factors. In this study, no relationship was found between hearing-aid use and hearing loss, but this may be due to the rather close clustering of hearing losses of subjects under consideration. No relationship was found between use and living circumstances (alone or with family, etc.) but this is more likely to reflect the weakness of the measurement tool than any real differences. No relationship was found between use and stated duration of hearing loss or across the sexes. The zinc air cell proved to be a very satisfactory method of assessing use, and could be used for initial assessment of use in newly issued patients to identify those making poor use of the aid who might be in need of counselling or other forms of assistance.