Self-Reported Usage, Functional Benefit, and Audiologic Characteristics of Cochlear Implant Patients Who Use a Contralateral Hearing Aid.
Arlene C Neuman, Susan B Waltzman, William H Shapiro and 3 others
PMID 28351216WHAT IT FOUND
Eighty of ninety-four unilateral cochlear implant users kept using a contralateral hearing aid daily, and most reported better hearing with both devices in quiet and noise.
Key findings
01Eighty participants continued using a hearing aid with the implant daily, and 14 discontinued.
02For continuing users, median CNC word scores were 24%, 65%, and 72% with hearing aid alone, implant alone, and both devices.
03For discontinued users, median CNC word scores were 8%, 64%, and 64% with hearing aid alone, implant alone, and both devices; the both-device score did not differ significantly from implant alone.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Participants were a convenience sample from one cochlear implant center, so they may not represent all unilateral implant users. Many participants were also taking part in bimodal hearing research, which may have increased motivation to continue hearing aid use. The discontinued group was small, with 14 participants, and some test data were missing. The study captured a snapshot in time, so continuing users might stop later. Because hearing aid use was not randomly assigned, it cannot show that the hearing aid caused any speech or quality-of-life benefit.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that a contralateral hearing aid improves function for every unilateral cochlear implant user. The study observed people who had already chosen to use both devices for at least 3 months, did not randomly assign hearing aid use, and showed that audiogram and hearing aid speech scores alone did not predict who would continue using the hearing aid.