Predictors of hearing aid benefit and user satisfaction in elderly hearing impaired subjects

Aim of this study is to derive a set of predictors to allow the estimation of the perceived satisfaction achieved by the use of hearing aids (HA) in elderly hearing impaired subjects. Subject's age, hearing loss, aided audiometric outcomes and cognitive function were considered as potential factors that could influence the perceived benefit and satisfaction in the use of an HA. HA benefit and satisfaction were measured with a battery of questionnaires that capture the perceived disability and the handicap due to auditory dysfunction. The subjects participating to the study were aged HA users (N = 102, mean age 81.1 years). Exploratory factor analysis was applied to discover potential latent factors among the test variables; regression analysis was then implemented to find which variables best predict the perceived HA benefit and the user satisfaction. The results showed that a subset of the test variables, namely the audiometric outcomes obtained in aided condition (i.e., when using the HA) and degree of hearing loss, were good predictors of the perceived HA benefit. As a matter of fact, subjects with better audiometric outcomes (i.e., who have a greater improvement in speech perception) and lower hearing impairment (i.e., who have an hearing impairment of less degree) reported significantly greater perceived benefit and satisfaction with the HA. Subject's cognitive abilities were not directly associated to the perceived HA benefit and satisfaction.