Hearing aid or “band aid”? Evaluating large scale hearing aid donation programmes in the Philippines

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of two large scale hearing aid donation programmes in the Philippines. Design: Real ear measurements were made on all hearing aids, for comparison to NAL-RP prescription targets. Performance measures and the International Outcomes Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) data was collected from a subsample of participants. Study sample: A total of 101 and 153 low socioeconomic status participants were sampled just after, or 6 months after receiving their hearing devices in each of the programmes evaluated, respectively. Results: Of the 189 hearing aids sampled at fitting, and the 195 hearing aids sampled at 6 months post fitting, less than 2% were within ±5dB of prescription target. At 6 months post fitting IOI-HA outcomes were essentially comparable to those described in the literature but were not a good predictor of fit to prescriptive target. Conclusions: Objective measures of hearing aid outcome were poor and showed no relationship to subjective outcome measures. Although able to fit large numbers in short time frames, to avoid a band aid solution, changes to such programmes should be made including: a focus on those with aidable hearing losses, increased opportunity for follow up care, and improved device quality.