Examining the construct and known-group validity of a composite endpoint for The Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey Minimum Data Set (TOPICS-MDS); A large-scale data sharing initiative

by Cynthia S. Hofman, Jennifer E. Lutomski, Han Boter, Bianca M. Buurman, Anton J. M. de Craen, Rogier Donders, Marcel G. M. Olde Rikkert, Peter Makai, René J. F. Melis, TOPICS-MDS research consortium

Background

Preference-weighted multi-faceted endpoints have the potential to facilitate comparative effectiveness research that incorporates patient preferences. The Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey—Composite endpoint (TOPICS-CEP) is potentially a valuable outcome measure for evaluating interventions in geriatric care as it combines multiple outcomes relevant to older persons in a single metric. The objective of this study was to validate TOPICS-CEP across different study settings (general population, primary care and hospital).

Methods

Data were extracted from TOPICS Minimum Dataset (MDS), a pooled public-access national database with information on older persons throughout the Netherlands. Data of 17,603 older persons were used. Meta-correlations were performed between TOPICS-CEP indexed scores, EuroQol5-D utility scores and Cantril’s ladder life satisfaction scores. Mixed linear regression analyses were performed to compare TOPICS-CEP indexed scores between known groups, e.g. persons with versus without depression.

Results

In the complete sample and when stratified by study setting TOPICS-CEP and Cantril’s ladder were moderately correlated, whereas TOPICS-CEP and EQ-5D were highly correlated. Higher mean TOPICS-CEP scores were found in persons who were: married, lived independently and had an education at university level. Moreover, higher mean TOPICS-CEP scores were found in persons without dementia, depression, and dizziness with falls, respectively. Similar results were found when stratified by subgroup.

Conclusion

This study supports that TOPICS-CEP is a robust measure which can potentially be used in broad settings to identify the effect of intervention or of prevention in elderly care.

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Selection of test-setup parameters to target specific signal-to-noise regions in speech-on-speech intelligibility testing

.


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Selection of test-setup parameters to target specific signal-to-noise regions in speech-on-speech intelligibility testing

.


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Selection of test-setup parameters to target specific signal-to-noise regions in speech-on-speech intelligibility testing

.


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The Acceptable Noise Level and the Pure-Tone Audiogram

Purpose

The vast majority of previous studies suggest that there is no relationship between the acceptable noise level (ANL) and pure-tone hearing thresholds reported as the average pure-tone hearing thresholds (pure-tone average). This study aims to explore (a) the relationship between hearing thresholds at individual frequencies and the ANL and (b) a measure of the slope of the audiogram and ANL.

Method

Sixty-three Danish adult hearing aid users participated. Assessments were pure-tone audiogram and 3 different versions of the ANL test made monaurally at 2 different sessions.

Results

The findings show that low-frequency hearing thresholds and the slope of the audiogram are significantly related to all versions of the ANL.

Conclusion

It is possible that previous studies have failed to discover a relationship between ANL and hearing thresholds due to the use of the broad 4-frequency pure-tone average. This has implications for our understanding of the ANL test.

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Service Delivery to Children With Mild Hearing Loss: Current Practice Patterns and Parent Perceptions

Purpose

This study investigates clinical practice patterns and parent perception of intervention for children with mild hearing loss (HL).

Method

Ages at and delays between service delivery steps (first diagnostic evaluation, confirmation of HL, hearing aid [HA] fitting, entry into early intervention) were investigated for 113 children with mild HL. Comparisons were made to children with moderate-to-severe HL. Parents of children with mild HL reported reasons for delays and their perceptions of intervention and amplification for their children.

Results

Seventy-four percent of children with mild HL were identified through the newborn hearing screen; 26% were identified later due to passing or not receiving a newborn hearing screen. Ninety-four percent of children with mild HL were fit with HAs, albeit at significantly later ages than children with moderate-to-severe HL. Most parents indicated that their children benefited from HA use, but some parents expressed ambivalence toward the amount of benefit.

Conclusions

Audiologists appear to be moving toward regularly providing amplification for children with mild HL. However, delays in HA fittings indicate that further educating professionals and parents about the benefits of early amplification and intervention is warranted to encourage timely fitting and consistent use of HAs.

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Improving Art Museum Accessibility for Adults With Acquired Hearing Loss

Purpose

Adults with hearing loss rated the accessibility of guided or docent-led art museum tours with and without hearing assistive technology (HAT).

Method

Nineteen individuals (average age 64 years, range 35–87 years) with acquired hearing loss participated. All participants had a bilateral hearing loss (mild to profound) using hearing aids (n = 12), cochlear implants (n = 5), or no technology (n = 2). Two docents who were previously trained to modify their presentations and use clear speech led the tours. Participants experienced a tour with and without the museum's HAT and rated its effectiveness using a rating scale. The study used a pre–post test design.

Results

The docent-led tours with HAT were rated significantly higher (p = .003) than the tours without HAT. Participants made several suggestions on improving museum accessibility for individuals with hearing loss.

Conclusions

The use of HAT during a museum tour was beneficial for individuals with hearing loss. Training docents to modify their presentations, use clear speech, and HAT improved the accessibility of docent-led tours for individuals with hearing loss.

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The Utilization of Social Media in the Hearing Aid Community

Purpose

This study investigated the utilization of social media by the hearing aid (HA) community. The purpose of this survey was to analyze the participation of HA community in the social media websites.

Method

A systematic survey of online HA-related social media sources was conducted. Such sources were identified using appropriate search terms. Social media participation was quantified on the basis of posts and “likes.”

Results

Five hundred fifty-seven social media sources were identified, including 174 Twitter accounts, 172 YouTube videos, 91 Facebook pages, 20 Facebook groups, 71 blogs, and 29 forums. Twitter and YouTube platforms showed the highest level of activity among social media users. The HA-related community used social media sources for advice and support, information sharing, and service-related information.

Conclusions

HA users, other individuals, and organizations interested in HAs leave their digital footprint on a wide variety of social media sources. The community connects, offers support, and shares information on a variety of HA-related issues. The HA community is as active in social media utilization as other groups, such as the cochlear implant community, even though the patterns of their social media use are different because of their unique needs.

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Aging Effect on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 and Thresholds of Pitch Contour Discrimination

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to examine the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2 (rising F0 pitch contour) and Tone 3 (falling-then-rising F0 pitch contour) as well as on the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination.

Method

Three experiments of Mandarin tone perception were conducted for younger and older listeners with Mandarin Chinese as the native language. The first 2 experiments were in the categorical perception paradigm: tone identification and tone discrimination for a series of stimuli, the F0 contour of which systematically varied from Tone 2 to Tone 3. In the third experiment, the just-noticeable differences of pitch contour discrimination were measured for both groups.

Results

In the measures of categorical perception, older listeners showed significantly shallower slopes in the tone identification function and significantly smaller peakedness in the tone discrimination function compared with younger listeners. Moreover, the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination were significantly higher for older listeners than for younger listeners.

Conclusion

These results suggest that aging reduced the categoricality of Mandarin tone perception and worsened the psychoacoustic capacity to discriminate pitch contour changes, thereby possibly leading to older listeners' difficulty in identifying Tones 2 and 3.

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The Effects of Service-Delivery Model and Purchase Price on Hearing-Aid Outcomes in Older Adults: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to determine efficacy of hearing aids in older adults using audiology best practices, to evaluate the efficacy of an alternative over-the-counter (OTC) intervention, and to examine the influence of purchase price on outcomes for both service-delivery models.

Design

The design of this study was a single-site, prospective, double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial with three parallel branches: (a) audiology best practices (AB), (b) consumer decides OTC model (CD), and (c) placebo devices (P). Outcome measures were obtained after a typical 6-week trial period with follow-up 4-week AB-based trial for those initially assigned to CD and P groups.

Setting

Older adults from the general community were recruited via newspaper and community flyers to participate at a university research clinic.

Participants

Participants were adults, ages 55–79 years, with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. There were 188 eligible participants: 163 enrolled as a volunteer sample, and 154 completed the intervention.

Intervention(s)

All participants received the same high-end digital mini-behind-the-ear hearing aids fitted bilaterally. AB and P groups received best-practice services from audiologists; differing mainly in use of appropriate (AB) or placebo (P) hearing aid settings. CD participants self-selected their own pre-programmed hearing aids via an OTC model.

Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures

Primary outcome measure was a 66-item self-report, Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (Cox & Gilmore, 1990). Secondary outcome measure was the Connected Speech Test (Cox, Alexander, & Gilmore, 1987) benefit. Additional measures of hearing-aid benefit, satisfaction, and usage were also obtained.

Results

Per-protocol analyses were performed. AB service-delivery model was found to be efficacious for most of the outcome measures, with moderate or large effect sizes (Cohen's d). CD service-delivery model was efficacious, with similar effect sizes. However, CD group had a significantly (p Conclusions

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Exploring the Relevance of Items in the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) for Individuals With Hearing Loss

Purpose

The Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) was developed to evaluate participation restrictions in communication situations for individuals with speech and language disorders. This study evaluated the potential relevance of CPIB items for individuals with hearing loss.

Method

Cognitive interviews were conducted with 17 adults with a range of treated and untreated hearing loss, who responded to 46 items. Interviews were continued until saturation was reached and prevalent trends emerged. A focus group was also conducted with 3 experienced audiologists to seek their views on the CPIB. Analysis of data included qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Results

The majority of the items were applicable to individuals with hearing loss; however, 12 items were identified as potentially not relevant. This was largely attributed to the items' focus on speech production rather than hearing. The results from the focus group were in agreement for a majority of items.

Conclusions

The next step in validating the CPIB for individuals with hearing loss is a psychometric analysis on a large sample. Possible outcomes could be that the CPIB is considered valid in its entirety or the creation of a new questionnaire or a hearing loss–specific short form with a subset of items is necessary.

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Masthead

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The Acceptable Noise Level and the Pure-Tone Audiogram

Purpose

The vast majority of previous studies suggest that there is no relationship between the acceptable noise level (ANL) and pure-tone hearing thresholds reported as the average pure-tone hearing thresholds (pure-tone average). This study aims to explore (a) the relationship between hearing thresholds at individual frequencies and the ANL and (b) a measure of the slope of the audiogram and ANL.

Method

Sixty-three Danish adult hearing aid users participated. Assessments were pure-tone audiogram and 3 different versions of the ANL test made monaurally at 2 different sessions.

Results

The findings show that low-frequency hearing thresholds and the slope of the audiogram are significantly related to all versions of the ANL.

Conclusion

It is possible that previous studies have failed to discover a relationship between ANL and hearing thresholds due to the use of the broad 4-frequency pure-tone average. This has implications for our understanding of the ANL test.

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Service Delivery to Children With Mild Hearing Loss: Current Practice Patterns and Parent Perceptions

Purpose

This study investigates clinical practice patterns and parent perception of intervention for children with mild hearing loss (HL).

Method

Ages at and delays between service delivery steps (first diagnostic evaluation, confirmation of HL, hearing aid [HA] fitting, entry into early intervention) were investigated for 113 children with mild HL. Comparisons were made to children with moderate-to-severe HL. Parents of children with mild HL reported reasons for delays and their perceptions of intervention and amplification for their children.

Results

Seventy-four percent of children with mild HL were identified through the newborn hearing screen; 26% were identified later due to passing or not receiving a newborn hearing screen. Ninety-four percent of children with mild HL were fit with HAs, albeit at significantly later ages than children with moderate-to-severe HL. Most parents indicated that their children benefited from HA use, but some parents expressed ambivalence toward the amount of benefit.

Conclusions

Audiologists appear to be moving toward regularly providing amplification for children with mild HL. However, delays in HA fittings indicate that further educating professionals and parents about the benefits of early amplification and intervention is warranted to encourage timely fitting and consistent use of HAs.

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Improving Art Museum Accessibility for Adults With Acquired Hearing Loss

Purpose

Adults with hearing loss rated the accessibility of guided or docent-led art museum tours with and without hearing assistive technology (HAT).

Method

Nineteen individuals (average age 64 years, range 35–87 years) with acquired hearing loss participated. All participants had a bilateral hearing loss (mild to profound) using hearing aids (n = 12), cochlear implants (n = 5), or no technology (n = 2). Two docents who were previously trained to modify their presentations and use clear speech led the tours. Participants experienced a tour with and without the museum's HAT and rated its effectiveness using a rating scale. The study used a pre–post test design.

Results

The docent-led tours with HAT were rated significantly higher (p = .003) than the tours without HAT. Participants made several suggestions on improving museum accessibility for individuals with hearing loss.

Conclusions

The use of HAT during a museum tour was beneficial for individuals with hearing loss. Training docents to modify their presentations, use clear speech, and HAT improved the accessibility of docent-led tours for individuals with hearing loss.

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The Utilization of Social Media in the Hearing Aid Community

Purpose

This study investigated the utilization of social media by the hearing aid (HA) community. The purpose of this survey was to analyze the participation of HA community in the social media websites.

Method

A systematic survey of online HA-related social media sources was conducted. Such sources were identified using appropriate search terms. Social media participation was quantified on the basis of posts and “likes.”

Results

Five hundred fifty-seven social media sources were identified, including 174 Twitter accounts, 172 YouTube videos, 91 Facebook pages, 20 Facebook groups, 71 blogs, and 29 forums. Twitter and YouTube platforms showed the highest level of activity among social media users. The HA-related community used social media sources for advice and support, information sharing, and service-related information.

Conclusions

HA users, other individuals, and organizations interested in HAs leave their digital footprint on a wide variety of social media sources. The community connects, offers support, and shares information on a variety of HA-related issues. The HA community is as active in social media utilization as other groups, such as the cochlear implant community, even though the patterns of their social media use are different because of their unique needs.

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Aging Effect on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 and Thresholds of Pitch Contour Discrimination

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to examine the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2 (rising F0 pitch contour) and Tone 3 (falling-then-rising F0 pitch contour) as well as on the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination.

Method

Three experiments of Mandarin tone perception were conducted for younger and older listeners with Mandarin Chinese as the native language. The first 2 experiments were in the categorical perception paradigm: tone identification and tone discrimination for a series of stimuli, the F0 contour of which systematically varied from Tone 2 to Tone 3. In the third experiment, the just-noticeable differences of pitch contour discrimination were measured for both groups.

Results

In the measures of categorical perception, older listeners showed significantly shallower slopes in the tone identification function and significantly smaller peakedness in the tone discrimination function compared with younger listeners. Moreover, the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination were significantly higher for older listeners than for younger listeners.

Conclusion

These results suggest that aging reduced the categoricality of Mandarin tone perception and worsened the psychoacoustic capacity to discriminate pitch contour changes, thereby possibly leading to older listeners' difficulty in identifying Tones 2 and 3.

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The Effects of Service-Delivery Model and Purchase Price on Hearing-Aid Outcomes in Older Adults: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to determine efficacy of hearing aids in older adults using audiology best practices, to evaluate the efficacy of an alternative over-the-counter (OTC) intervention, and to examine the influence of purchase price on outcomes for both service-delivery models.

Design

The design of this study was a single-site, prospective, double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial with three parallel branches: (a) audiology best practices (AB), (b) consumer decides OTC model (CD), and (c) placebo devices (P). Outcome measures were obtained after a typical 6-week trial period with follow-up 4-week AB-based trial for those initially assigned to CD and P groups.

Setting

Older adults from the general community were recruited via newspaper and community flyers to participate at a university research clinic.

Participants

Participants were adults, ages 55–79 years, with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. There were 188 eligible participants: 163 enrolled as a volunteer sample, and 154 completed the intervention.

Intervention(s)

All participants received the same high-end digital mini-behind-the-ear hearing aids fitted bilaterally. AB and P groups received best-practice services from audiologists; differing mainly in use of appropriate (AB) or placebo (P) hearing aid settings. CD participants self-selected their own pre-programmed hearing aids via an OTC model.

Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures

Primary outcome measure was a 66-item self-report, Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (Cox & Gilmore, 1990). Secondary outcome measure was the Connected Speech Test (Cox, Alexander, & Gilmore, 1987) benefit. Additional measures of hearing-aid benefit, satisfaction, and usage were also obtained.

Results

Per-protocol analyses were performed. AB service-delivery model was found to be efficacious for most of the outcome measures, with moderate or large effect sizes (Cohen's d). CD service-delivery model was efficacious, with similar effect sizes. However, CD group had a significantly (p Conclusions

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Exploring the Relevance of Items in the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) for Individuals With Hearing Loss

Purpose

The Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) was developed to evaluate participation restrictions in communication situations for individuals with speech and language disorders. This study evaluated the potential relevance of CPIB items for individuals with hearing loss.

Method

Cognitive interviews were conducted with 17 adults with a range of treated and untreated hearing loss, who responded to 46 items. Interviews were continued until saturation was reached and prevalent trends emerged. A focus group was also conducted with 3 experienced audiologists to seek their views on the CPIB. Analysis of data included qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Results

The majority of the items were applicable to individuals with hearing loss; however, 12 items were identified as potentially not relevant. This was largely attributed to the items' focus on speech production rather than hearing. The results from the focus group were in agreement for a majority of items.

Conclusions

The next step in validating the CPIB for individuals with hearing loss is a psychometric analysis on a large sample. Possible outcomes could be that the CPIB is considered valid in its entirety or the creation of a new questionnaire or a hearing loss–specific short form with a subset of items is necessary.

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Masthead

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The Acceptable Noise Level and the Pure-Tone Audiogram

Purpose

The vast majority of previous studies suggest that there is no relationship between the acceptable noise level (ANL) and pure-tone hearing thresholds reported as the average pure-tone hearing thresholds (pure-tone average). This study aims to explore (a) the relationship between hearing thresholds at individual frequencies and the ANL and (b) a measure of the slope of the audiogram and ANL.

Method

Sixty-three Danish adult hearing aid users participated. Assessments were pure-tone audiogram and 3 different versions of the ANL test made monaurally at 2 different sessions.

Results

The findings show that low-frequency hearing thresholds and the slope of the audiogram are significantly related to all versions of the ANL.

Conclusion

It is possible that previous studies have failed to discover a relationship between ANL and hearing thresholds due to the use of the broad 4-frequency pure-tone average. This has implications for our understanding of the ANL test.

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Service Delivery to Children With Mild Hearing Loss: Current Practice Patterns and Parent Perceptions

Purpose

This study investigates clinical practice patterns and parent perception of intervention for children with mild hearing loss (HL).

Method

Ages at and delays between service delivery steps (first diagnostic evaluation, confirmation of HL, hearing aid [HA] fitting, entry into early intervention) were investigated for 113 children with mild HL. Comparisons were made to children with moderate-to-severe HL. Parents of children with mild HL reported reasons for delays and their perceptions of intervention and amplification for their children.

Results

Seventy-four percent of children with mild HL were identified through the newborn hearing screen; 26% were identified later due to passing or not receiving a newborn hearing screen. Ninety-four percent of children with mild HL were fit with HAs, albeit at significantly later ages than children with moderate-to-severe HL. Most parents indicated that their children benefited from HA use, but some parents expressed ambivalence toward the amount of benefit.

Conclusions

Audiologists appear to be moving toward regularly providing amplification for children with mild HL. However, delays in HA fittings indicate that further educating professionals and parents about the benefits of early amplification and intervention is warranted to encourage timely fitting and consistent use of HAs.

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Improving Art Museum Accessibility for Adults With Acquired Hearing Loss

Purpose

Adults with hearing loss rated the accessibility of guided or docent-led art museum tours with and without hearing assistive technology (HAT).

Method

Nineteen individuals (average age 64 years, range 35–87 years) with acquired hearing loss participated. All participants had a bilateral hearing loss (mild to profound) using hearing aids (n = 12), cochlear implants (n = 5), or no technology (n = 2). Two docents who were previously trained to modify their presentations and use clear speech led the tours. Participants experienced a tour with and without the museum's HAT and rated its effectiveness using a rating scale. The study used a pre–post test design.

Results

The docent-led tours with HAT were rated significantly higher (p = .003) than the tours without HAT. Participants made several suggestions on improving museum accessibility for individuals with hearing loss.

Conclusions

The use of HAT during a museum tour was beneficial for individuals with hearing loss. Training docents to modify their presentations, use clear speech, and HAT improved the accessibility of docent-led tours for individuals with hearing loss.

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The Utilization of Social Media in the Hearing Aid Community

Purpose

This study investigated the utilization of social media by the hearing aid (HA) community. The purpose of this survey was to analyze the participation of HA community in the social media websites.

Method

A systematic survey of online HA-related social media sources was conducted. Such sources were identified using appropriate search terms. Social media participation was quantified on the basis of posts and “likes.”

Results

Five hundred fifty-seven social media sources were identified, including 174 Twitter accounts, 172 YouTube videos, 91 Facebook pages, 20 Facebook groups, 71 blogs, and 29 forums. Twitter and YouTube platforms showed the highest level of activity among social media users. The HA-related community used social media sources for advice and support, information sharing, and service-related information.

Conclusions

HA users, other individuals, and organizations interested in HAs leave their digital footprint on a wide variety of social media sources. The community connects, offers support, and shares information on a variety of HA-related issues. The HA community is as active in social media utilization as other groups, such as the cochlear implant community, even though the patterns of their social media use are different because of their unique needs.

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Aging Effect on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 and Thresholds of Pitch Contour Discrimination

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to examine the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2 (rising F0 pitch contour) and Tone 3 (falling-then-rising F0 pitch contour) as well as on the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination.

Method

Three experiments of Mandarin tone perception were conducted for younger and older listeners with Mandarin Chinese as the native language. The first 2 experiments were in the categorical perception paradigm: tone identification and tone discrimination for a series of stimuli, the F0 contour of which systematically varied from Tone 2 to Tone 3. In the third experiment, the just-noticeable differences of pitch contour discrimination were measured for both groups.

Results

In the measures of categorical perception, older listeners showed significantly shallower slopes in the tone identification function and significantly smaller peakedness in the tone discrimination function compared with younger listeners. Moreover, the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination were significantly higher for older listeners than for younger listeners.

Conclusion

These results suggest that aging reduced the categoricality of Mandarin tone perception and worsened the psychoacoustic capacity to discriminate pitch contour changes, thereby possibly leading to older listeners' difficulty in identifying Tones 2 and 3.

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The Effects of Service-Delivery Model and Purchase Price on Hearing-Aid Outcomes in Older Adults: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to determine efficacy of hearing aids in older adults using audiology best practices, to evaluate the efficacy of an alternative over-the-counter (OTC) intervention, and to examine the influence of purchase price on outcomes for both service-delivery models.

Design

The design of this study was a single-site, prospective, double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial with three parallel branches: (a) audiology best practices (AB), (b) consumer decides OTC model (CD), and (c) placebo devices (P). Outcome measures were obtained after a typical 6-week trial period with follow-up 4-week AB-based trial for those initially assigned to CD and P groups.

Setting

Older adults from the general community were recruited via newspaper and community flyers to participate at a university research clinic.

Participants

Participants were adults, ages 55–79 years, with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. There were 188 eligible participants: 163 enrolled as a volunteer sample, and 154 completed the intervention.

Intervention(s)

All participants received the same high-end digital mini-behind-the-ear hearing aids fitted bilaterally. AB and P groups received best-practice services from audiologists; differing mainly in use of appropriate (AB) or placebo (P) hearing aid settings. CD participants self-selected their own pre-programmed hearing aids via an OTC model.

Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures

Primary outcome measure was a 66-item self-report, Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (Cox & Gilmore, 1990). Secondary outcome measure was the Connected Speech Test (Cox, Alexander, & Gilmore, 1987) benefit. Additional measures of hearing-aid benefit, satisfaction, and usage were also obtained.

Results

Per-protocol analyses were performed. AB service-delivery model was found to be efficacious for most of the outcome measures, with moderate or large effect sizes (Cohen's d). CD service-delivery model was efficacious, with similar effect sizes. However, CD group had a significantly (p Conclusions

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Exploring the Relevance of Items in the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) for Individuals With Hearing Loss

Purpose

The Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) was developed to evaluate participation restrictions in communication situations for individuals with speech and language disorders. This study evaluated the potential relevance of CPIB items for individuals with hearing loss.

Method

Cognitive interviews were conducted with 17 adults with a range of treated and untreated hearing loss, who responded to 46 items. Interviews were continued until saturation was reached and prevalent trends emerged. A focus group was also conducted with 3 experienced audiologists to seek their views on the CPIB. Analysis of data included qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Results

The majority of the items were applicable to individuals with hearing loss; however, 12 items were identified as potentially not relevant. This was largely attributed to the items' focus on speech production rather than hearing. The results from the focus group were in agreement for a majority of items.

Conclusions

The next step in validating the CPIB for individuals with hearing loss is a psychometric analysis on a large sample. Possible outcomes could be that the CPIB is considered valid in its entirety or the creation of a new questionnaire or a hearing loss–specific short form with a subset of items is necessary.

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Masthead

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