Fitting Hearing Aids on Senior Adults
By McSpaden, Jay B.; Hearing Review, Vol. 17, No. 2, p. 38Publication Date: February 2010
Article discusses techniques for fitting hearing aids on older patients. Advice for accommodating the fitting process to seniors includes (1) speaking deliberately and articulating clearly, (2) allowing sufficient response time for each task or question, (3) shifting the normal content and order of the test battery to accommodate the capabilities of the patient, and (4) allowing a longer interstimulus interval rather than judging a response to be incorrect or absent because of the elapsed time for a response. The author advises the use of a “90 second rule” for this clientele, rather than the commonly used 10 second interword interval, to gauge attenuation levels, as seniors may take longer to react to a signal and will subsequently respond to one that is several decibel levels over threshold. This in turn will result in a hearing instrument that is “overfit” compared to the optimal solution for the patient’s hearing problem.
Published by: Ascend Media LLC (Website:http://www.ascendmedia.com)
Link to text: http://www.hearingreview.com/issues/articles/2010-02_06.asp
