Differences Between Older Adults Who Do and Do Not Try Hearing Aids and Between Those Who Keep and Return the Devices

The focus of this study was on the differences between older adults who complied with a clinical recommendation for hearing-aid acquisition (adherents; N = 105) and those who did not (nonadherents; N = 34) among a group of research volunteers from the community. All participants were first-time hearing-aid users. Differences between adherents and nonadherents were examined across several domains, including demographic variables, audiometric measures, measures of affect and personality, cognitive variables, hearing-aid expectations, and the perceived hearing difficulties of the older adults and their adjustments to those difficulties. It was found that the adherents differed significantly (p < .05) from the nonadherents primarily in their perceived difficulties and reactions to them as well as their expectations for hearing aids. Importantly, the pattern of differences between the adherents and nonadherents was primarily confined to measures that could potentially be shaped by appropriate counseling and education of the older adult. In a secondary analysis, among the 105 adherents, a small group (N = 21) returned their hearing aids for credit with 15 of them completing the outcome measures at the end of a 1-month trial period. When comparisons were made between the adherents who kept their hearing aids (N = 84) and those who returned them, the primary differences between these two groups of adherents were in the poorer aided outcomes obtained by those who returned their devices.