Long-term versus short-term hearing aid benefit.

This study compared hearing aid benefit obtained 6 weeks and a minimum of 1 year after fitting to determine if changes occurred over time. Fifteen individuals with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing losses, who were successful users of linear amplification, were fitted binaurally with the Resound BT2 Personal Hearing System. These hearing aids are programmable in two frequency bands that provide wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification. The manufacturer's recommended loudness growth in octave bands (LGOB) and audiogram programming algorithm and fitting procedures were used. Following an initial 6-week period and again following a minimum of 1 year of use, the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (PHAB) was administered. Similarly, speech recognition performance was tested using the Connected Speech Test (CST) in a six-talker speech babble at 50 dBA, +10 signal-to-noise (S/N); 60 dBA, +5 SNR; and 70 dBA, +2 SNR; and in quiet with a reverberation time of 0.78 seconds. Significant aided benefit was shown. These short-term benefit scores for the PHAB and CST were compared with those obtained after 1 year of full-time use. Results revealed no significant change in hearing aid benefit with long-term use, suggesting that a 6-week acclimatization period is sufficiently long for clinical trials of this type of WDRC amplification.