These articles present the results of a longitudinal study of hearing aid outcomes in a group of elderly individuals. The focus is on self-perceived benefits of hearing aid use and how they can best be measured clinically. The study applied 20 different outcome measures and followed 134 participants for one year, 42 participants for two years, and 9 participants for three years.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• identify and describe the seven independent factors of hearing aid outcomes identified in the Indiana University study, as presented in the first of these three articles
• define the term “acclimatization” as presented in these articles and explain its relation to outcome measures for hearing aid wearers
• summarize the results of this research regarding recommendations of what outcome measures are appropriate and when in the process they should be measured
• describe the evidence presented from the study and how the evidence supports these recommendations