Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is ubiquitous and is characterized as bilateral symmetrical sensorineural and mild to moderate in degree. When left untreated, significant impacts arise in domains including communication, psychosocial, cognitive and physical health. Data demonstrating the effectiveness of unilateral or bilateral hearing aids (HAs) as the standard treatment are lacking....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Results of this RCT directly bear on bilateral vs. unilateral fitting decisions for adults with symmetrical mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss; full-text review is essential, but this is potentially practice-changing depending on the direction and magnitude of the findings.
A well-powered RCT on binaural versus unilateral fitting fills a critical evidence gap and could reshape dispensing guidelines, reimbursement policy, and patient counselling for the largest hearing-loss population worldwide.
- 01RCT design with random assignment to unilateral or bilateral hearing aid fitting.
- 02Population: adults with age-related, bilateral, symmetrical mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss.
- 03Published in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, a high-impact journal.
- 04Direct comparison of two widely used fitting approaches in everyday clinical practice.
- 05Results have immediate implications for fitting protocols, cost-effectiveness, and insurance coverage.
Bilateral hearing aid fitting is being compared head-to-head with unilateral fitting for age-related sensorineural hearing loss in a randomized design.
studysupported- PMID
- 42658545
- DOI
- 10.1001/jamaoto.2026.2401.
- Journal
- JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 1b
- Population
- Adults with age-related bilateral symmetrical mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss
- Intervention
- Bilateral hearing aid fitting
- Comparator
- Unilateral hearing aid fitting
Primary outcomes
Hearing aid benefit (likely self-report or speech perception); Quality of life or functional hearing outcomes