Older adults’ experiences and issues with hearing aids in the first six months after hearing aid fitting

Objectives: This study describes older adults’ experiences with a new hearing aid (HA) during the first 6 months after fitting. Design: In a
longitudinally designed study, experiences and issues with HA use were assessed at a six-month follow-up appointment in individual
structured interviews lasting 30 min. Associations between HA experiences and demographic factors, degree of hearing loss, and an
objective measure of HA use (datalogging) were also examined. Study sample: 181HA recipients (60 years) attending a six-month
follow-up appointment. Results: Participants reported an average of 1.4 issues (range 0–5, median¼1, mode¼1) with HA use, the most
common pertaining to the earmold (26.5%), sound quality (26.0%) and handling (25.5%). Participants who reported at least one issue had
fewer hours of use per day, but were not more likely to be non-users (530 min/day). Non-users (15.5%) were more likely to report no need
for a HA and handling issues. Conclusions: Most older adults use their HAs regardless of reported issues. However, handling issues and no
perceived need may interfere with HA usage among some adults with hearing impairment. Moreover, reported issues were associated with
less frequent HA use. Follow-up support is thus important to address issues that may interfere with optimal use.