Everyday hearing functioning in unilateral versus bilateral hearing aid users

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to assess hearing functioning in everyday listening situations of bilateral and unilateral hearing aid (HA) users. Method: 80 Arabic-speaking HA users: 46 bilateral and 34 unilateral HA users with various degrees of HL. Participants completed the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities (SSQ) self-report questionnaire. Results: In general, bilateral users performed better than unilateral users on the speech and spatial scales. For participants with symmetrical unaided HL, the bilateral group significantly surpassed the unilateral group on all three scales. For participants with asymmetrical unaided HL, no significant intergroup differences emerged. Regarding degree of HL, the moderate HL group outperformed the severe, and profound HL groups. No differences emerged between the severe and profound groups. Finally, more severe HL correlated with poorer SSQ performance. Similarly, better speech discrimination scores correlated with better SSQ performance. Conclusion: Results support the need for subjective questionnaires when assessing HA benefits. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.