Beyond hearing aid fitting: Patient-centered aural rehabilitation in adults with acquired sensorineural hearing impairment

Hearing impairment is one of the most commonly reported chronic health problems in the older adult population, and is associated with psychosocial and quality of life handicaps (Gordon-Salant, 2006; Jennings, 2005; Weinstein, 1996). Both scientific and clinical evidence demonstrate that adults with handicapping hearing impairment benefit from rehabilitative services offered by audiologists (Weinstein, 1996). There are many rehabilitative services and programs available to this population of patients, however, there is evidence to suggest that a typical audiologic consultation does not extend beyond hearing aid fitting and orientation (Jennings, 2005; Southall et al., 2010; Sweetow & Palmer, 2005), overlooking other potentially useful and critical components of aural rehabilitation. Although hearing aids have been shown to be efficacious in the rehabilitation of hearing impairment by successfully improving the quality of life and communicative abilities of hearing aid users, (Kochkin, 1992; Kricos, Erdman, Bratt, & Williams, 2007; Weinstein, 1996), the use of hearing aids will not address all of the challenges that are created by the presence of hearing impairment (Jennings, 2005). This paper presents an overview of the difficulties experienced by individuals with hearing impairment and seeks to determine best practices in aural rehabilitation by examining the evidence for the efficacy of various aural rehabilitation services and programs available to patients