Plastic changes in speech perception in older adults with hearing impairment following hearing aid use: a systematic review

Whether hearing aid use in older adults modifies speech perception over time is not clear. To address this question, we systematically reviewed studies in which older first-time hearing aid users and controls were followed over time.

The review was pre-registered in PROSPERO and performed in accordance with the statement on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The question, inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined using the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes and Study design (PICOS) framework. Studies with no controls, studies in which participants and controls were tested at only one-time point, with no follow-up and no pre-fitting measures, or when outcome measures did not include speech measures, were excluded.

6113 studies were screened, out of which 12 studies, published between 1996 and 2021, met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the final review.

9 of the 12 studies found evidence for amplification-induced auditory plasticity in older adults, expressed in improved speech perception.

The results suggest amplification-induced improvements in speech perception over time, but findings should be interpreted with caution because overall improvements were small, and the studies’ quality was moderate.