Abstract:
INTRODUCTION : Smartphone technology can provide an effective means to bring
real-life and (near-)real-time feedback from hearing aid wearers into the clinic.
Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) encourages listeners to report on their
experiences during or shortly after they take place in order to minimize recall
bias, e.g., guided by surveys in a mobile application. Allowing listeners to
describe experiences in their own words, further, ensures that answers are
independent of predefined jargon or of how survey questions are formulated.
Through these means, one can obtain ecologically valid sets of data, for
instance during a hearing aid trial, which can support clinicians to assess the
needs of their clients, provide directions for fine-tuning, and counselling. At a
larger scale, such datasets would facilitate training of machine learning
algorithms that could help hearing technology to anticipate user needs.
METHODS : In this retrospective, exploratory analysis of a clinical data set, we
performed a cluster analysis on 8,793 open-text statements, which were
collected through self-initiated EMAs, provided by 2,301 hearing aid wearers as
part of their hearing care. Our aim was to explore how listeners describe their
daily life experiences with hearing technology in (near-)real-time, in their own
words, by identifying emerging themes in the reports. We also explored whether
identified themes correlated with the nature of the experiences, i.e., selfreported
satisfaction ratings indicating a positive or negative experience.
RESULTS : Results showed that close to 60% of listeners’ reports related to speech
intelligibility in challenging situations and sound quality dimensions, and tended
to be valued as positive experiences. In comparison, close to 40% of reports
related to hearing aid management, and tended to be valued as negative
experiences.
DISCUSSION : This first report of open-text statements, collected through selfinitiated
EMAs as part of clinical practice, shows that, while EMA can come with
a participant burden, at least a subsample of motivated hearing aid wearers could use these novel tools to provide feedback to inform more responsive, personalized,
and family-centered hearing care.
