Clinical Research Directory
Browse clinical research sites, groups, and studies.
Hearing Aids for Veterans With Functional Hearing Difficulties
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Summary
Every year, approximately 100,000 Veterans seek help at VA Audiology clinics for hearing and communication difficulties only to learn that they have normal hearing sensitivity. Unfortunately, there are very few established options to improve hearing and listening for these patients. To address this need, audiologists are increasingly prescribing hearing aids set to provide a small amount of amplification. Patients may benefit from the amplification or from modern hearing aid features such as noise reduction technology and the ability to stream sounds from a desired sound source directly to their ears thus reducing the background noise. This project will help to determine if prescribing hearing aids to patients without hearing loss is, in fact, beneficial and if so, why. It will also help to determine if some patients benefit more from hearing aids than others so that in the future, rehabilitation strategies can be better targeted toward individuals.
Official title: Evaluating Device-based Rehabilitation for Veterans With Functional Hearing Difficulties: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 79 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
142
Start Date
2025-03-09
Completion Date
2028-03-31
Last Updated
2025-05-02
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Communication Counseling
Individuals randomized to this group will receive information on how to improve their ability to hear and communicate including general tips on environmental modification and communication repair strategies and personalized tips to help with patient-specific listening difficulties. This is consistent with current audiological standard of care.
Hearing Aids
Hearing aids will be provided with amplification settings programmed specific to each participant's pure-tone hearing thresholds with subsequent adjustments based upon participant preferences. Standard noise cancelation and signal-to-noise ratio improvement strategies will be activated.
Remote Microphones
Remote microphone systems will be provided for use with hearing aids.
Locations (1)
VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR
Portland, Oregon, United States