MS Nancy Garrus Lindroth M.A., CCC-A
MS Sharon Beamer M.A., CCC-A
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Washington, DC 20307
The advent of sophisticated hearing aid technology has significantly increased the range of amplification options. As audiologists we can successfully accommodate a wider range of audiometric configurations than in the past including precipitous sensorineural hearing loss commonly observed with noise related impairments and mild or minimal hearing loss. Concomitantly, with the availability of more cosmetically appealing instruments we can reach a population previously resistant to hearing aid use. The technological and cosmetic advancements bring new challenges for determining appropriate candidacy to include not only the audiometric configuration but the perceived measure of communication difficulty as well. Numerous investigators (Giolas1982 and Erdman 1994) have demonstrated pure tone and speech audiometric measures are not necessarily correlated with self-report measures of hearing difficulty. Similarly, challenges arise in counseling patients who exhibit some hearing loss, but may not be appropriate candidates for amplification. This paper examines the various factors that determine hearing aid candidacy including audiometric test results, self-assessment of communication difficulties, and motivational factors.