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IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFICULTIES
EXPERIENCED WITH THE PHYSICAL APPLICATION OF BEHIND-THE-EAR
HEARING AIDS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH AURICULAR ANATOMY
Mandy
Miller (UK)
Contemporary digital hearing aid technology will
significantly reduce concerns about the cost, sound quality and
size of hearing aids. However, to gain optimum benefit from this
technology issues of cosmetic appearance, physical comfort and
stigma should be addressed. Behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids
often provoke these concerns and despite significant attempts
to improve their user satisfaction there is much scope for improvement.
There is insufficient data on auricular morphology and specific
difficulties experienced by hearing aid wearers but such data
could offer solutions that would satisfactorily resolve some
problems associated with hearing aid use. BTE aids are an important
source of amplification for people with Down's Syndrome among
whom hearing loss is prevalent. Characteristic auricular anomalies
are present in this population and it has been suggested that
they experience significant difficulties with the physical application
of their BTE hearing aids.
A small study aimed to identify more than normal
difficulties experienced by a group of Down's Syndrome BTE aid
wearers, auricular anomalies and any associations between the
difficulties and presence of those anomalies. Fourteen Down's
Syndrome subjects (males and females aged between 3 and 18 years)
were compared to 16 subjects without Down's Syndrome.
Three sets of data were collected from each subject.
Firstly, a questionnaire recorded problems experienced with the
physical application of the hearing aids. Secondly, anthropometry
was employed to measure the angle of protrusion, height and resistance
of the upper portion of the auricles. Thirdly, casts were made
of the auricles from which 3 contours of the retro-auricular
space were recorded and 4 observations were made on the morphology.
The group of people with Down's Syndrome had significantly
more problems with the case of the hearing aid pushing down on
the upper portion of their auricles and the accidental detachment
of the earmoulds. It was concluded that accidental detachment
of the hearing aid case was a problem for the Down's Syndrome
group but this problem was not significantly more important than
for the non-Down's Syndrome group. The upper portion of the Down's
Syndrome auricles gave significantly less resistance and were
reduced in height. The concha and cymba concha were significantly
shallower and the root of the helix within the concha significantly
more pronounced. Reduced height in the upper portion of the auricle
contributed to the accidental detachment of the hearing aid case
and earmould. Improvements in the methodology were proposed that
would certainly strengthen the results. The statistical results
together with the qualitative data lead to speculation on a number
of possible design considerations.
This article first appeared on the site in 2002.
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