Patient Preference for Entry, Mid, or Advanced Level Digital Hearing Aid Technology

The motivation of this retrospective study was to determine if patient files indicated preference for advanced level hearing aid technology over mid-level and entry level technology. Fifty participants were selected from the database at The Ohio State University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic whose hearing loss warranted amplification and who trialed different levels of technology and provided feedback on each level trialed. Forty seven patients were included in the study; eighteen of which were blinded to the level of hearing aid technology and twenty-nine who were not. Ninety-four percent of subjects in the blinded group and 90% of subjects in the not blinded group preferred the highest level of hearing aid technology they trialed. Altogether; 89% of subjects who trialed the advanced level technology preferred it to lower levels of technology and 91% preferred the highest technology level trialed. One-hundred percent of previous hearing aid users preferred the highest level hearing aid technology trialed, in comparison to 88% of new hearing aid users. In total, 17% of the blinded group and 24% of the not blinded group purchased a lower level of hearing aid technology than was preferred; 21% of the total subjects. Ninety-three percent of previous hearing aid users purchased their preference and 75% of new hearing aid users purchased their preference; 79% of all subjects in total purchased their preference