A Measure of Long-Term Hearing Aid Use Persistence Based on Battery Reordering Data

Abstract

Objective: We describe the construction of a hearing aid long-term use persistence measure based on battery reorder data. The measure is derived from the notion that hearing aid users keep using their devices for some time after placing a battery order. Design: A hearing aid user is defined as persistent at time T if they placed a battery order within a time span W preceding T . We characterize and validate this measure using electronic health records from a large sample of US Veterans. Results: We describe how to choose parameters T and W for calculating persistence rates in the patient sample. For validation, the associations of persistence with: (1) the duration over which users received outpatient hearing aid care; (2) self-reported hearing aid use shortly after fitting; and (3) patient age and hearing loss are investigated. In all cases, plausible dependencies are observed. Conclusions: We conclude that our persistence measure is viable and hope this will motivate its use in similar studies.

Dementia and hearing-aid use: a two-way street

“…Due to the nature of our dataset, we had to evaluate hearing-aid use persistence at slightly different timepoints in the two analyses, introducing an arbitrary bias. However, analyses on a superset of the present dataset show that hearing-aid use persistence is very stable from about 2 years after hearing-aid fitting onwards [20].…”

“…A binary proxy variable indicating whether hearing-aid use remained persistent at 3.5 years post hearing-aid fitting was determined for each patient based on their history of hearing-aid battery orders, according to our previously published derivation [20]. In brief, a hearing-aid user is deemed to remain persistent at time t if they have ordered a pack of batteries within the 18-month period leading up to t. VA provides enough batteries in each pack for 6 months of full-time use; hence, 'persistence' corresponds roughly to continued use at several hours per day.…”

Dementia and hearing-aid use: a two-way street

“…Third, due to the nature of our dataset we had to evaluate HA use persistence at slightly different timepoints in the two analyses, introducing an arbitrary bias. However, analyses on a superset of the present dataset show that HA use persistence is very stable from about 2 years after HA fitting onwards (Zobay et al, 2021). Fourth, by requiring survival to 2017/12/31 we could also have introduced some distortion of the observed effects, since dementia is independently associated with excess mortality (Todd et al, 2013).…”

“…A binary proxy variable indicating whether HA use remained persistent at 3y6m post HA fitting was determined for each patient based on their history of HA battery orders, according to our previously published derivation (Zobay et al, 2021). In brief, a HA user is deemed to remain persistent at time t if they have ordered a pack of batteries within the 18-month period leading up to t .…”

Clinical Trials and Outcome Measures in Adults With Hearing Loss

“…For example, Solheim and Hickson (2017) reported a mean of 8.4 and 6.1 h for self-report and data logging, respectively. A possible alternative to measuring hearing aid use by data logging is to measure persistence through requests for supply of batteries (Zobay et al, 2021). Future measures may also be able to tap into usefulnessthe desired outcome for which use and persistence are surrogates.…”