Teleaudiology: Clinical Outcomes from Adults with Hearing Loss

Abstract

Outside of major metropolitan areas, Arizona has limited options for hearing healthcare. The Arizona Affordable Hearing Aid Task Force proposed the development of a statewide program to provide low-cost hearing aids and audiologic care to low-income residents. The purpose of this review was to determine the status of the literature on the clinical outcomes of teleaudiology services for evaluations and hearing aid fittings which could be used to serve inhabitants of rural counties and address the goals of the Task Force. A literature search was performed to identify articles with original research in teleaudiology in the areas of evaluation and treatment and yielded 234 results. After exclusion criteria were applied, there were 15 articles for review; 10 articles focused on audiological evaluation and 5 articles focused on verification, validation, and counseling for hearing aid fittings. Evaluation-related articles showed that pure-tone air conduction testing was generally within the ± 5 dB acceptable range of variability, with little evidence on bone conduction or speech testing reliability. Studies reporting real-ear measurements with probe microphones were shown to yield similar results in traditional and teleaudiology fitting sessions and validation measures documented similar or better outcomes from teleaudiology fittings. Based on the literature, it is concluded that the use of teleaudiology is feasible for hearing aid fittings and counseling in rural areas, if associated barriers related to costs and limitations related to the availability of technology are overcome.