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Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change
Background. Hearing aids sold directly to consumers in retail stores or through the internet, without individual prescription by audiological professionals, are termed over-the-counter (OTC) devices. This study aimed to determine whether there was any change in the electroacoustic characteristics of...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628714/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26557701 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/827463 |
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author | Chan, Zoe Yee Ting McPherson, Bradley |
author_facet | Chan, Zoe Yee Ting McPherson, Bradley |
author_sort | Chan, Zoe Yee Ting |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background. Hearing aids sold directly to consumers in retail stores or through the internet, without individual prescription by audiological professionals, are termed over-the-counter (OTC) devices. This study aimed to determine whether there was any change in the electroacoustic characteristics of OTC devices compared to research carried out a decade earlier. The previous results indicated that most OTC devices were low-frequency-emphasis devices and were unsuitable for elderly people with presbycusis, who were likely to be the major consumers of these products. Methods. Ten OTC devices were selected and their electroacoustic performance was measured. Appropriate clients for the OTC devices were derived, using four linear prescription formulae, and OTC suitability for elderly persons with presbycusis was investigated. Results. OTC electroacoustic characteristics were similar to those in the earlier study. Most OTC devices were not acoustically appropriate for potential consumers with presbycusis. Although several of the devices could match prescriptive targets for individuals with presbycusis, their poor electroacoustic performance—including ineffective volume control function, high equivalent input noise, and irregular frequency response—may override their potential benefit. Conclusion. The low-cost OTC devices were generally not suitable for the main consumers of these products, and there has been little improvement in the appropriateness of these devices over the past decade. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4628714 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46287142015-11-09 Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change Chan, Zoe Yee Ting McPherson, Bradley Biomed Res Int Research Article Background. Hearing aids sold directly to consumers in retail stores or through the internet, without individual prescription by audiological professionals, are termed over-the-counter (OTC) devices. This study aimed to determine whether there was any change in the electroacoustic characteristics of OTC devices compared to research carried out a decade earlier. The previous results indicated that most OTC devices were low-frequency-emphasis devices and were unsuitable for elderly people with presbycusis, who were likely to be the major consumers of these products. Methods. Ten OTC devices were selected and their electroacoustic performance was measured. Appropriate clients for the OTC devices were derived, using four linear prescription formulae, and OTC suitability for elderly persons with presbycusis was investigated. Results. OTC electroacoustic characteristics were similar to those in the earlier study. Most OTC devices were not acoustically appropriate for potential consumers with presbycusis. Although several of the devices could match prescriptive targets for individuals with presbycusis, their poor electroacoustic performance—including ineffective volume control function, high equivalent input noise, and irregular frequency response—may override their potential benefit. Conclusion. The low-cost OTC devices were generally not suitable for the main consumers of these products, and there has been little improvement in the appropriateness of these devices over the past decade. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4628714/ /pubmed/26557701 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/827463 Text en Copyright © 2015 Z. Y. T. Chan and B. McPherson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Chan, Zoe Yee Ting McPherson, Bradley Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title | Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title_full | Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title_fullStr | Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title_full_unstemmed | Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title_short | Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: A Lost Decade for Change |
title_sort | over-the-counter hearing aids: a lost decade for change |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628714/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26557701 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/827463 |
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