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Purpose This study investigated longitudinal hearing aid (HA) use in a cohort of children with moderate hearing loss (CHL), fitted with amplification before the age of 6 months. Additionally, the relationship of HA use and aided audibility on outcomes of parental questionnaires of auditory skills was examined, and these outcomes were compared to a group of children with normal hearing (CNH). Method Nine CHL and 29 CNH and their parents participated in the study. Measures were collected at initial fitting, 10, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Parents reported hours of HA use and situations the HAs were used. Datalogging and speech intelligibility index were also collected. Auditory skills were measured through parental questionnaires. Results The mean hours of HA use/day for this cohort increased from 7.55 at the ages of 10 months to 10.15 at 36 months according to datalogging. Parental estimations of hours of HA use and in which situations varied between subjects. Correlations between HA use from datalogging and speech intelligibility index to measures of auditory skills were weak. CHL showed similar results to CNH on auditory development at the ages of 10, 18, and 24 months but presented with significantly lower scores on auditory functional performance in noise at 30 and 36 months of age. Conclusions Longitudinal monitoring of HA use from fitting of amplification with the combination of objective and subjective tools may have a positive impact on HA use in CHL. The lower scores on listening in noise compared to CNH call for further attention.

Background: The International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) is a seven-item hearing-specific questionnaire. It was developed with the purpose of evaluating the efficacy of hearing aid rehabilitation. Few psychometric properties have been presented for a Swedish translation of the IOI-HA. Furthermore, previous studies have examined the IOI-HA in mainly sensorineural hearing losses, and we do not know how the type of hearing loss affects the outcome., Purpose: To evaluate the hearing aid fitting outcome measured in a clinical setting using a Swedish translation of the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA), to determine the psychometric properties of the translation, and to examine how a number of demographic variables such as type of hearing loss affect the outcome., Research Design: A descriptive and correlational study in a retrospective sample., Study Sample: Two hundred and twenty-four (107 females and 117 males; ages 27-94 yr with an average of 66.1 yr) first-time hearing aid users., Intervention: Mostly digital hearing aids (97.8%) were fitted monaurally (60%) or binaurally (40%) between 2007 and 2009., Data Collection and Analysis: The subjects were mailed the IOI-HA questionnaire six months after their final appointment, and the completed questionnaire was returned by mail to the clinic. The psychometric properties were evaluated and compared to previous studies using the IOI-HA. The associations between the outcome scores and a number of demographic variables (age, gender, degree of hearing loss, type of hearing loss, number of hearing aids, and type of hearing aids) were examined. Based on the pure tone audiograms, the subjects were divided into three groups; those with conductive hearing losses, sensorineural hearing losses, and mixed hearing losses. For these groups, the differences in outcome measured as IOI-HA were examined., Results: The psychometric properties of the present translation of the IOI-HA showed resemblance in many aspects to previous reports. Furthermore, the type of hearing loss seems to affect the IOI-HA outcome. Hearing loss increases with increasing age, and hearing aid use increases with increasing degree of hearing loss. Subjects with sensorineural hearing losses show significantly poorer scores on items concerning introspective aspects of the outcome in comparison to subjects with mixed hearing losses and subjects with conductive hearing losses. Monaurally fitted subjects tend to report lower scores on average, but monaural or binaural hearing aid fitting do not significantly affect the subjective outcome., Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the present Swedish translation of the IOI-HA show resemblance in many aspects to previous reports, but the differences observed could be due to differences in the study populations. Overall, the demographic variables examined could not be used as predictors for the hearing aid fitting outcome, and more reliable predictors need to be identified., (American Academy of Audiology.)

Rudner et al (2008) showed that when compression release settings are manipulated in the hearing instruments of Swedish habitual users, the resulting mismatch between the phonological form of the input speech signal and representations stored in long-term memory leads to greater engagement of explicit cognitive processing under taxing listening conditions. The mismatch effect is manifest in significant correlations between performance on cognitive tests and aided-speech-recognition performance in modulated noise and/or with fast compression release settings. This effect is predicted by the ELU model (Rönnberg et al, 2008). In order to test whether the mismatch effect can be generalized across languages, we examined two sets of aided speech recognition data collected from a Danish population where two cognitive tests, reading span and letter monitoring, had been administered. A reanalysis of all three datasets, including 102 participants, demonstrated the mismatch effect. These findings suggest that the effect of phonological mismatch, as predicted by the ELU model (Rönnberg et al, this issue) and tapped by the reading span test, is a stable phenomenon across these two Scandinavian languages.

The purpose of the present study was to measure health-related quality of life (HRQL), personal harmony and work-induced problems, and to identify typical personal traits among Swedish adults with a severe-profound hearing impairment who were employed full-time. In comparison with hearing people aged <65 years, the hearing-impaired individuals working full-time differed only as regards energy and social isolation. Compared to another group of hearing-impaired subjects (working either part-time or retired) the study group scored better on most dimensions. Personal harmony of the hearing-impaired group working full-time did not differ from that of average employed Swedish people. The work situation of the group was generally reported to be busy but rewarding, especially concerning contact with fellow workers and management. Among various personal traits examined, strong will-power and stress tolerance were the most significant. However, due to the small sample size, it is not possible to state that the results indicate a general situation or were just due to the study subjects constituting an elite sample of hearing-impaired individuals.

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) was measured with the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in 311 Swedish adults suffering from severe-profound hearing impairment (sensorineural hearing loss in the better ear of > or = 70 dB HL at a frequency of 1.0 kHz) for comparisons with a normal-hearing population. The subjects completed NHP and a questionnaire regarding bio-psycho-social status. Generally, subjects with profound hearing loss reported lower HRQL. Significant differences were obtained for lack of energy, emotional reactions and social isolation. Females with profound impaired hearing tended overall to have lower HRQL than the males. The persons with severe-profound hearing impairment working full-time reported higher HRQL than those with a partial or full disablement pension and were comparable with the hearing population. Severe-profound hearing impairment is associated with an impact on HRQL of the sufferers, especially their emotional and social coping and energy resources. The profound hearing-impaired persons seem to constitute a risk group for worse psychosocial adjustment and need greater attention and support.