Fitzpatrick 2008.
Methods | Randomised but control participants crossed over to intervention after the control sessions | |
Participants | N = 24 (14 intervention and 10 control) Age: range intervention 45 to 86, mean 69.5; control 61 to 88, mean 70.1 intervention 9 female, 5 male; control 6 females, 4 male Inclusion criteria: 18 years plus, have high school diploma, native English speakers, SNHL, used binaural HAs for at least 6 weeks Exclusion criteria: SF‐12 score < 50%, word recognition score < 60%, no known neurological or psychiatric problems |
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Interventions | Auditory training versus lectures on HL and HAs and discussion of communication tactics Auditory training consisted for 16 sessions ‐ 13 training and 3 test sessions of 1 hour each |
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Outcomes | Medium‐term: NU‐6, CST, CCT (SPEECH PERCEPTION), HA use and satisfaction questionnaire (USE) | |
Notes | — | |
Risk of bias | ||
Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Comment: random numbers table used – even number experimental, odd numbers control |
Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: although random number tables used it is unclear who undertook the allocation and whether this was concealed from the researchers |
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | High risk | Participants not blind due to the nature of the intervention |
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | High risk | Not blinded |
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Apparently no missing data ‐ must have had very highly motivated patients |
Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | No protocol available |
Other bias | High risk | Intervention group had training with one of the tests used in the evaluation sessions Also there was a baseline difference between the groups with the control group having higher scores on 2 of the speech perception tests |