Objective: Primarily to understand whether clinically relevant factors affect the International Outcome Inventory (IOI-HA) scores and to examine if IOI-HA scores improve when renewing the hearing aids (HA) for experienced users. Secondly, to estimate the overall HA effectiveness using the IOI-HA.
Design: A prospective observational study.
Study sample: In total, 1961 patients with hearing loss were included. All patients underwent a hearing examination, were fitted with HAs, and answered the IOI-HA. Factor analysis of IOI-HA separated the items into a Factor 1 (use of HA, perceived benefits, satisfaction, and quality of life) and Factor 2 (residual activity limitation, residual participation restriction and impact on others) score.
Results: Degree of hearing loss, word recognition score, motivation, HA usage time, tinnitus, asymmetry, and sex were significantly associated with total IOI-HA, Factor 1, or Factor 2 scores. The seven IOI-HA items increased on average by 0.4 (p < 0.001) when renewing HAs. The total median IOI-HA score at follow-up was 29 (7) for experienced (n = 460) and first-time users (n = 1189), respectively.
Conclusions: Degree of hearing loss, word recognition score, motivation, tinnitus, asymmetry, and sex may be used to identify patients who require special attention to become successful HA users.
Keywords: Hearing aids; IOI-HA; experienced users; first-time users; hearing aid effectiveness.