Gj. Beynon et al., A RANDOMIZED, CONTROLLED TRIAL OF THE EFFICACY OF A COMMUNICATION COURSE FOR FIRST TIME HEARING AID USERS, British journal of audiology, 31(5), 1997, pp. 345-351
Many centres include a communication course as part of their auditory
rehabilitation. These usually take the form of a small group and inclu
de discussion of the effects of hearing loss, use of the hearing aid,
hearing tactics and lip reading. To investigate the efficacy of such a
rehabilitation programme a randomized, controlled trial of a communic
ation course was undertaken. All subjects were first time hearing aid
users. handicap was measured using the Quantified Denver Scale of Comm
unication Function (QDS) at the time of hearing aid fitting, and then
13 weeks later. All subjects had a hearing aid follow-up appointment,
but the treatment group (n = 22) also underwent a four-week communicat
ion course, while the control group (n = 25) had no further rehabilita
tion. The reduction in handicap measured by the change in QDS was sign
ificantly greater for the treatment group than for the control group (
Mann Whitney U test, tied p value = 0.014). This indicates that such a
communication course is efficacious in reducing handicap. Further res
earch is required to identify the populations that will benefit most f
rom such a course.