PP308 - The BiCROS experience: A patient-oriented approach to investigate subjective outcomes using questionnaires, and a patient perspective of BiCROS preference

Background: Individuals with single-sided deafness do not benefit from conventional hearing aids on the unaidable ear due to the nature and extent of the hearing loss. Contralateral Routing of Signal (CROS) technology allows these individuals to have access to sounds from that side by transmitting the signal received on the microphone of the worse ear to the better ear. If the hearing on the better ear is normal, the CROS system is used, and. For individuals who also have some hearing loss in the better ear, a BiCROS system is more suitable, whereby the user wears a fully functional hearing aid in the better ear and the signal transmitted from the worse ear via the CROS technology is also amplified.
The benefit of both monaural hearing aid use and CROS/BiCROS compared to unaided has been well-documented. CROS/BiCROS technology has been shown to improve speech intelligibility in quiet and noise, when the speech is presented from the unaidable side, and the front/unaidable side, respectively. This technology has also been reported to improve speech intelligibility in surrounding diffuse noise. Furthermore, CROS/BiCROS systems have also positively influenced some subjective outcomes, such as sound quality measures and ratings of ease of communication.
Rationale: While aided benefit derived from using conventional hearing aids and CROS/BiCROS systems are well-documented, the subjective benefit of these systems needs further investigation. Individual factors and features may influence user attitudes towards these systems.
Methodology: To explore this, we propose to measure patient-oriented outcomes using subjective questionnaires. We will recruit up to 20 BiCROS hearing aid users and administer the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ), as well as the Bern Benefit in Single-Sided Deafness Questionnaires (BBSS) to assess their self-perceived benefit from using this technology.
We will also use brainstorming approach to directly ask the participants to identify the constructs of the BiCROS system that they value. The participants will be asked to respond to the prompt “One benefit to using my hearing aids in both ears (BiCROS system) rather than just one hearing aid is:” with as many ideas as possible. The statements will undergo a sorting process and any duplicates will be eliminated to ensure that only unique statements remain. These unique statements will serve as the foundation for developing a questionnaire that focuses on the user experience of BiCROS hearing aids, using a Delphi technique that involves both clinicians and patients.
Expected Impact: By comparing the outcomes of the brainstorming session and the enjoyable aspects of using BiCROS hearing aids with the results of the SSQ and BBSS questionnaires, we aim to determine whether these existing questionnaires accurately measure patient-oriented outcomes for BiCROS users. The insights gained from this analysis will inform the development of a new questionnaire that specifically focuses on BiCROS hearing aids.