The effects of involvement of the general practitioner and guidance of the hearing impaired on hearing-aid use.

A number of international and national publications report that hearing aids are sometimes under used. In this paper, results are reported of a project to increase the effective use of hearing aids. The first intervention was aimed at a more effective exchange of information between the general practitioner (GP) and the ENT specialist. This was achieved by the introduction of a structured referral form. In addition, a simple hearing aid was placed at the GP's disposal for demonstration purposes. As a second, independent intervention, 50% of the patients were visited at home by a trained volunteer. A measure of effective use that combines the effectiveness and actual use had been developed. After the first intervention the non-effective use of hearing aids decreased from 38% to 30%, this being just below statistical significance (p = 0.12). The protocol approach by the GP in combination with the demonstration hearing aid proved to be especially useful. Patients with a counselling visit at home had a significantly lower level of non-effective use (27% versus 37%; p < 0.05) than patients who had not been visited.