Validation of a Self-Fitting Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Intervention Compared with a Clinician-Fitted Hearing Aid Intervention: A Within-Subjects Crossover Design Using the Same Device.
Lucas S Baltzell, Kosta Kokkinakis, Amy Li and 3 others
PMID 40129389WHAT IT FOUND
In 21 adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, a self-fitting hearing aid yielded better speech-in-noise scores and self-reported benefit than a clinician-fitted one.
However, the clinician fit deviated from standard practice, so this does not prove self-fitting is superior to optimal care.
Key findings
01Self-fitted hearing aids showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in speech-in-noise scores compared to both unaided and clinician-fitted conditions.
02Global self-reported benefit was significantly better for the self-fitted intervention than for the clinician-fitted intervention.
03The clinician-fitted intervention did not follow standard best practices, lacking real-ear verification and follow-up fine-tuning, which may have weakened its performance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (21 participants), limiting generalizability. The clinician-fitted intervention did not follow standard audiological best practices, lacking real-ear verification and post-fit fine-tuning. The study used a specific device and proprietary self-fitting algorithm, so results may not apply to other OTC hearing aids. The field-use period was only two weeks, which may not reflect long-term adaptation or satisfaction.
Declared interests
Three of the authors are employees of Concha Labs, the manufacturer of the hearing aid studied.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that self-fitting hearing aids are superior to professional care. The clinician-fitted arm in this study skipped key steps like real-ear verification and follow-up adjustments, which likely weakened its performance compared to what a standard, optimized clinical fit would achieve.