Outcomes
Primary outcome
The primary outcome was any of the following after 12 weeks of hearing
aid use: 1) improving attention or memory scores on the NEUPSILIN; or 2)
reducing latency of auditory evoked potentials, as measured by HEARLabĀ®
equipment. This variable was dichotomized into two categories: improved
(1) and not improved (0).
Improvement in the NEUPSILIN scores was defined as a reduction (in
seconds) in reverse counting time and/or higher total score on the tasks
of digit sequence repetition, working memory, auditory word span,
immediate and delayed recall, recognition, long-term memory evocation,
and visual memory. Improvement in auditory evoked potentials was defined
as a decrease in latency time > 1 millisecond.
Secondary outcomes
We considered the total score of IOI-HA as a secondary outcome, which
meant the overall satisfaction with the hearing aids. This variable was
analyzed as an ordinal one.
After the trial started, we included the total score of IOI-HA as a
secondary outcome so that we could assess self-satisfaction with regards
to hearing aid use at the end of the research.