PURPOSE: To investigate the efficiency of a formal auditory training program in hearing aid wearers during the acclimatization period. METHODS: Eighteen subjects (mean age of 71.38 years old), male and female, binaural intra-aural hearing aid users for one week participated in the study. Experimental (with auditory training) and Control (without training) groups were formed randomly. Subjects in the experimental group have undergone a formal auditory training program organized in seven 50-minute sessions, once a week. Evaluation procedures included speech recognition tests and a self-assessment questionnaire. These procedures were carried out before (1st evaluation) and after (2nd evaluation) the training for the Experimental Group and in the Initial and Final evaluation for the Control Group. RESULTS: In the experimental group, both the word recognition score (WRS) and the speech in noise test showed significantly improved results after the training (2nd evaluation). In the study of signal-to-noise ratio for sentence recognition in noise, there was a slight tendency (p-value near 0,05) of improvement in the evaluation after the training. It was also observed that for the Experimental Group the results in the 2nd evaluation have not revealed differences in comparison to the results of the Control Group in all tests. CONCLUSION: It could be concluded that the aural rehabilitation program, including formal auditory training beneficiates the elderly in the period of hearing aids adaptation and also modifies the auditory behavior of these subjects.
Hearing loss; Cochlear implants; Hearing aids; Adaptation, physiological; Aged
