Acceptance of electroacoustic hearing aids by hearing-impaired children

Background: Having one or 2 hearing aids is not a guarantee that a child will wear the instruments constantly. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hearing aid acceptance by children (assessed using the daily wearing time). Patients and methods: A total of 116 parents of a patient population of persistent hearing-impaired children with a need for a hearing aid (average age 51.1+/-30.1 months) rated the wearing acceptance of their children on a 5-point-Likert-scale. This assessment was made after the child had received its individual hearing aid for its specific disorder ton average after 5 months). Hearing levels ranged from mild to profound. Results: 58.6% of the children accepted their electroacoustic aids amplier "excellent" or "good", 18.1% did it "average", 23.3% "bad" to "miserable" or even "not at all". There was no significant difference between girls and boys. The wearing acceptance from children with unilateral hearing impairments was reduced, especially from those with chronic conductive disorders by malformations of the ears. Very young children (prelingual hearing impairments), mainly those with additional handicaps and/or not German speaking homes demonstrated a "bad" to missing wearing behaviour. Hearing acceptance did not correlate with the severity of the disorder. Conclusion:The wearing acceptance as one aspect of compliance should be rated before each regular hearing aid control. Finally it is an efficient and sensitive mean to detect faulty amplification and changed diagnosis.