Jean Straus uses hearing aids to help with her hearing. As a member of the public with first-hand experience of hearing loss, Jean is a valued member of the research team, providing a unique perspective, ensuring the research is designed around patient needs. Jean would like to share the following with you.
‘The use of hearing aids by adults with hearing loss, how should we define and measure success?’ This is a question you’d think would be easy to answer. Right? Wrong.
But researchers are currently working on this question, only to discover there are some big stumbling blocks to finding an answer: for example, how do we define a process of using hearing aids when we all use them differently? How do we measure something so unclear? Researchers sometimes equate the number of hours people wear their hearing aids with successful use, but do hours really equal success? In addition, how would they know if we do or we don’t?