Table 1.
Questions and Response Options for Questions 1 to 21 From the Music Survey.
| Question | Response options | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Do you have a hearing loss? | Yes; No |
| 2 | Do you use hearing aid(s) for one hour a day or more? | No; Yes, in the left ear only; Yes, in the right ear only; Yes, in both ears |
| 3 | Is your hearing loss conductive, sensorineural, or a combination of the two (mixed)? | Conductive; Sensorineural; Mixed; Don’t know |
| 4 | How long have you had a hearing loss? | Less than one year; 1–5 years; 5–10 years; 10–20 years; More than 20 years |
| 5 | Please describe your hearing loss using the categories below. Click on all that apply | Mild; Moderate; Severe; Profound |
| 6 | Please describe how easy you find it to understand speech when talking to one person in a quiet room without using your hearing aids and without lipreading | Very easy; Fairly easy; Medium; Somewhat difficult; Very difficult; Impossible |
| 7 | Please describe how easy you find it to talk on the telephone without using your hearing aids when you are in a quiet room | Very easy; Fairly easy; Medium; Fairly difficult; Very difficult; Impossible |
| 8 | Please describe the pattern of your hearing loss as well as you can | Greater at high frequencies than low frequencies; Greater at low frequencies than at high frequencies; Greater at medium than at low or high frequencies; Almost the same at all frequencies |
| 9 | What age are you? | 1–15; 16–20; 21–30; 30–40; 5: 40–50; 50–60; 60–70; 70–80; More than 80 |
| 10 | Are you male or female? | Male; Female |
| 11 | Please specify the extent of your musical training/experience. Click on the description that fits your training/experience the best. | I have no musical training; I play a musical instrument or sing as an amateur, but have not had formal training; I play a musical instrument or sing and have had training or lessons lasting one year or less; I play a musical instrument or sing and have had training or lessons lasting one to two years; I play a musical instrument or sing and have had training or lessons lasting two to five years; I play a musical instrument or sing and have had training or lessons lasting more than five years; I am a professional musician |
| 12 | Please specify the type of hearing aids that you have | Behind the ear with earmold in the ear; Behind the ear with thin tubing and a soft dome in the ear canal; Behind the ear with receiver in the ear canal; In the ear; In the canal; Completely in the canal; Other (please specify) |
| 13 | Please specify the extent to which your ear canal is sealed by your hearing aid(s). | Open (earmold with large vent); Open (soft dome with openings); Partly closed (earmould with small vent); Closed (earmould with no vent); Closed (sealed dome in ear canal); Other (please specify) |
| 14 | Please specify the name of the manufacturer of your hearing aid(s) | Audifon; Beltone; Bernafon; Danavox; GNResound; Hansaton; Oticon; Phonak; Rexton; Sebotek; Siemens; Sonic Innovations; Starkey; Unitron; Widex; other (please specify) |
| 15 | Do your hearing aids incorporate any form of frequency lowering or frequency compression, for example “Soundrecover” for Phonak aids, “Audibility extender” for Widex aids, or “Spectral iQ” for Starkey aids? | No; Yes—Soundrecover; Yes—Audibility extender; Yes—Spectral IQ; Yes—type unknown; Don’t know |
| 16 | Do you have a special program in your hearing aid(s) for listening to music | Yes; No |
| 17 | Do you ever experience a whistling sound (acoustic feedback) when using your hearing aids to listen to music? | Yes; No |
| 18 | When listening to music via radio, TV or stereo system, do you find your hearing aids to be helpful? | Yes—a lot; Yes—a little; Hardly at all; No—the aids make things a bit worse; No—the aids make things a lot worse; Not applicable: I don’t wear hearing aids when listening to music; I can’t hear music via the TV or radio without my hearing aids |
| 19 | When listening to live music, do you find your hearing aids to be helpful? | Yes—a lot; Yes—a little; hardly at all; No—the aids make things a bit worse; No the aids make things a lot worse; Not applicable: I don’t wear hearing aids when listening to live music; I can’t hear live music without my hearing aids |
| 20 | When you listen to music using your hearing aids, do you find that the hearing aids (please click on ALL that apply): | Make the music louder; Help me to hear softer passages without the louder parts being too loud; Make the louder parts too loud; Make the music sound more clear; Make the music sound less clear; Make it easier to hear the individual instruments; Make it harder to hear the individual instruments; Sometimes make the music seem distorted; Often make the music seem distorted; Make the music seem too bright or shrill; Make the music seem lacking in bass; Improve the tone quality of the music; Worsen the tone quality of the music |
| 21 | Please rate your ease of listening when using your hearing aids for the following types of music. We are interested in how easy or difficult it is to hear individual notes and to follow the melodic line or lines. If you do not listen to one of the types of music, click on “not applicable.” | Very easy; Fairly easy; Medium; Somewhat difficult; Very difficult; Not applicable |
Note. Some additional information meant to improve the understanding of the respondents is not included here but is given in the supplementary material.