Hearing Aids, Counseling and the Significant Other

Auditory Rehabilitation From the Perspective of the Significant Other

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of enhanced patient-centered counseling (PCC) and the influence of spousal involvement in pre-fitting counseling on hearing-aid outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria: Both men and women with hearing loss and their live-in partners will serve as subjects in this study. The subjects with hearing loss will have a mild to moderately-severe hearing loss in both of the ears, will have word recognition scores of 40% or better bilaterally, and will be about to get new hearing aids. Live-in partners may also have up to a moderately-severe degree of hearing loss but cannot have prior experience with hearing aids nor have plans to get hearing aids during the course of their participation in this study. Their word recognition scores should also be 40% or better bilaterally. All subjects also will meet the following additional inclusion criteria:

1. Age 20-85 years;
2. Intact mental status as assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein & McHugh, 1975);
3. No evidence of any major medical illness requiring long-term assistive care, as determined by the Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (Katz, Down, Cash &Grotz, 1970);
4. Able to read and respond to English; and
5. Willing and able to give written informed consent to participate in this investigation.

Exclusion Criteria: Failure to satisfy any of the requirements listed above or if their live-in partner fails to meet the criteria.