The subjective outcome measures are a crucial element of the auditory rehabilitation process for hearing aid fitting. Authors hypothesised that normative data used for the device-orientated subjective outcome (DOSO) were no longer valid for new hearing aids technologies (2015-era technologies). The new normative data were obtained based on results from 2014-2015 collected from 132 experienced hearing aid users. The DOSO data were collected four times in reference to their own hearing aids (DOSO (a) short form) and three types of Starkey research hearing aids (DOSO (b) short form). The new normative data were obtained based on participants’ own hearing aids. The previous normative data scores for almost all DOSO subscales were significantly lower than the data obtained for the participants during this study. However, the listening effort scores did not improve. The author suggested that the data obtained should be used as new normative data. However, it is necessary to remember that the previous normative data were based on the DOSO long form. Although scores based on the research hearing aids were higher in general than those based on participants’ own hearing aids, it is important to remember that both categories were evaluated using two different DOSO short forms. Additionally, the research hearing aids were always assessed after the participant’s own hearing aids. The authors indicated that all forms of DOSO should be researched in reference to the new hearing aid technologies. It is also worth mentioning that the Starkey research hearing aids were available on the market at the time of collecting data. It would be interesting to evaluate other manufacturers’ hearing aids that were released at a similar time to the Starkey research hearing aids.
The DOSO outcome measure
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