Utilization of hearing aids issued by the public health service. Hearing aid use in Ribe County, Denmark.

A prospective survey was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of public audiological rehabilitation. Two hundred and fifty-four of 256 consecutive patients were interviewed six months after hearing aid issue. One hundred and sixty-eight (66%) were full-time users, 225 (88%) wore an aid either all the time or every day. Eight were successful situational users, while 21 (8%) were non-users. Eighty-six of the 233 users (37%) made use of their telecoil. Of a total of 363 aids dispensed, 26 (7%) were out of use. Experienced users differed significantly from first-time users: they had poorer hearing, they used their aids more than first-time users and they were more often treated binaurally.