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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...

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Autores principales: Chan, Zoe Yee Ting, McPherson, Bradley
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
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.
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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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