| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 聽力學與語言治療研究所 === 94 === The purposes of the study were to investigate the reasons why hearing aid users stop wearing them, the correlation between the continuance use of hearing aids and their background variables, differences in hearing aid satisfaction between two groups of hearing-aid using (HA using) and hearing-aid stop-using (HA stop-using), and the consistency between answers of dissatisfaction in the questionnaire and the reasons for stopping wearing hearing aids. According to the findings, suggestions were proposed to audiologists and hearing aid companies.
The study was conducted with a self-designed questionnaire, “Reasons for stopping the use of hearing aids”, and Lo’s “Hearing aid satisfaction inventory” (Lo Yi-Chi, 2005). The questionnaires were answered by two groups of HA using and HA stop-using subjects, 30 each. The results were summarized as follows:
1.Variables significantly correlated with the continuance use of hearing aids were “first time hearing aid user”, “hearing aids being subsidized”, and “degree of hearing loss in the better ear”. For subjects in HA stop-using group, the proportion for “first time hearing aid user” was higher, for “being subsidized” was lower and the degree of loss in the better ear was lower than the HA stop wearing group. Other variables, including sex, education level, personal income and hearing aid types, were not correlated to the continuance use of hearing aids. There was no significant difference between these two groups in the age and self-perceived hearing handicap.
2.For subjects who stop wearing hearing aids, 6.6% of them attributed to one single reason, and 90% of them selected multiple reasons (2 to 19). The more the reasons selected, the lower the level of satisfaction showed (p < .001). The categorical factors in reasons for stop wearing hearing aids were ranked from high to low as “benefit”, “hearing aid specialists”, “manipulation”, “personal”, and “expense”. The reasons ranked for the top ten were (1) I feel uncomfortable about amplified background noise. (2) Hearing aids are of no help when I try to communicate with others in a noisy environment. (3) Hearing aids often whistle (a feedback sound). (4) I can’t hear TV clearly. (5) With hearing aids, hearing a sudden loud noise sound makes me feel uncomfortable. (6) The environment noise is amplified and greatly interferes with speech sounds. (7) Hearing aids are of no help in a quiet environment. (8) Listening to my own voice, I feel like being in a cave. (9) The sound quality through hearing aids is not good enough. (10) It is troublesome to use hearing aids.
3.For subjects who stopped wearing hearing aids due to sound feedback, occlusion effect or poor sound quality, 75% of them had asked specialists to adjust hearing aids but in vain. The remaining 25% gave up using hearing aids without looking for solutions.
4.The scores in hearing aid satisfaction inventory for subjects of the HA stop-wearing group were significantly lower than those of the other group (p < .025) and was also lower than the score reported in Lo’s study (p < .05). For the HA using group, there was no significant difference between scores reported in this study and in Lo’s study (p＞.05).
5.The scores for the five subscales in hearing aid satisfaction inventory were significantly different from each other for both groups (p＜.001). The average score in “service of hearing aids” was significantly higher than those in subscales of “benefit”, “comfort and manipulation”, “self-image issues and visibility”, and “expenses of hearing aids” (p < .05).
6.There were 14 comparable questions in questionnaires of “Reasons for stopping the use of hearing aids” and “Hearing aid satisfaction inventory”. Fifty-eight percent of consistency was observed between the results of these two questionnaires.
Key words: stop wearing hearing aids, hearing aids, hearing aid satisfaction
|
|---|
