Factors Influencing Hearing Aid Satisfaction in South Korea.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is three-fold: 1) to evaluate factors influencing hearing aid (HA) satisfaction; 2) to provide a profile of HA satisfaction in daily life; and 3) to examine the reasons why people gave up using HAs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data for 1148 respondents were statistically analyzed and reported.

RESULTS

In the study, age (β=-0.03, <0.01), level of education (β=1.21, <0.01), HA purchase price (β=1.50, <0.01), bilateral amplification (β=1.23, <0.01), wearing time (β=0.28, <0.01), and HA fitting and fine tuning on a regular basis (β=1.71, <0.01) significantly influenced HA satisfaction. In addition, the authors observed that the most satisfactory factors were clarity of sound (53.5%), people's trust in their HA (61.7%), and listening from a quiet environment (72.8%) in the domains of sound quality, HA features, and listening environments, respectively. Finally, with multiple choices being possible, 65% of the 40 respondents who no longer used HAs answered that their HAs ended up in a drawer since the background noise was annoying and distracting.

CONCLUSION

This study is significant in that it is a large-scale multi-center research to comprehensively examine the factors influencing HA satisfaction in South Korea. This data will provide helpful information that could lead to the successful rehabilitation of hearing loss with HAs.