Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2009 Dec 15:9:233.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-233.

Hearing aid effectiveness after aural rehabilitation - individual versus group (HEARING) trial: RCT design and baseline characteristics

Margaret P Collins  1 , Pamela E Souza, Chuan-Fen Liu, Patrick J Heagerty, Dagmar Amtmann, Bevan Yueh
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Hearing aid effectiveness after aural rehabilitation - individual versus group (HEARING) trial: RCT design and baseline characteristics

Margaret P Collins et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Hearing impairment is the most common body system disability in veterans. In 2008, nearly 520,000 veterans had a disability for hearing loss through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Changes in eligibility for hearing aid services, along with the aging population, contributed to a greater than 300% increase in the number of hearing aids dispensed from 1996 to 2006. In 2006, the VA committed to having no wait times for patient visits while providing quality clinically-appropriate care. One approach to achieving this goal is the use of group visits as an alternative to individual visits. We sought to determine: 1) if group hearing aid fitting and follow-up visits were at least as effective as individual visits, and 2) whether group visits lead to cost savings through the six month period after the hearing aid fitting. We describe the rationale, design, and characteristics of the baseline cohort of the first randomized clinical trial to study the impact of group versus individual hearing aid fitting and follow-up visits.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the VA Puget Sound Health Care System Audiology Clinic. Eligible patients had no previous hearing aid use and monaural or binaural air-conduction hearing aids were ordered at the evaluation visit. Participants were randomized to receive the hearing aid fitting and the hearing aid follow-up in an individual or group visit. The primary outcomes were hearing-related function, measured with the first module of the Effectiveness of Aural Rehabilitation (Inner EAR), and hearing aid adherence. We tracked the total cost of planned and unplanned audiology visits over the 6-month interval after the hearing aid fitting.

Discussion: A cohort of 659 participants was randomized to receive group or individual hearing aid fitting and follow-up visits. Baseline demographic and self-reported health status and hearing-related measures were evenly distributed across the treatment arms.Outcomes after the 6-month follow-up period are needed to determine if group visits were as least as good as those for individual visits and will be reported in subsequent publication.

Trial registration: NCT00260663.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trial Design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Average hearing loss for participants at baseline. Vertical bars represent +/- one standard deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Veterans Benefits Administration Annual Benefits Report Fiscal Year 2008. http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/abr/2006_abr.pdf
    1. Dunlop RJ, Beck LB, Dennis KC, Gonzenbach SA, Abrams HB, Berardino JT, Styer SA, Hall A. Support personnel in VA audiology. Audiology Today. 2006;18(1):24–25.
    1. Abrams HB, Hnath-Chisolm T, Guerreiro SM, Ritterman SI. The effects of intervention strategy on self-perception of hearing handicap. Ear Hear. 1992;13(5):371–377. doi: 10.1097/00003446-199210000-00014. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abrams H, Hnath Chisolm TH, McArdle R. A cost-utility analysis of adult group audiologic rehabilitation: Are the benefits worth the cost? J Rehabil Res Dev. 2002;39(5):549–448. - PubMed
    1. Andersson G, Melin L, Scott B, Lindberg P. An evaluation of a behavioural treatment approach to hearing impairment. Behav Res Ther. 1995;33(3):283–292. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(94)00040-Q. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data