Derivation and Validation of a Client-centered Outcome Measure for Hearing Aid Services

The Glasgow Hearing Aid Benefit Profile (GHABP) has been derived, optimized, and verified as an instrument suitable for application in the context of the evaluation of the efficacy and effectiveness of rehabilitative services for hearing-impaired adults . The profile produces scales of preintervention disability, handicap, reported hearing aid use, reported benefit, satisfaction, and residual disability, obtained over a combination of prespecified listening circumstances and those nominated by individual hearing-impaired listeners . A validity criterion for the GHABP and other contenders for use in the evaluation of such services is proposed and justified. The outcome scales from the GHABP are demonstrated to exhibit the power to discriminate between hearing aid fittings, and the instrument is proposed as a suitable candidate for a routine service monitoring indicator as part of a program of quality assurance and standards.