GPS predicts stability of listening environment characteristics in one location over time among older hearing aid users

OBJECTIVE: Hearing aid technology can allow users to “geo-tag” hearing aid preferences using the Global Positioning System (GPS). This technology assumes that listening environment characteristics that affect hearing aid benefit change little in a location over time. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether certain characteristics (reverberation, signal type, listening activity, noise location, noisiness, talker familiarity, talker location, and visual cues) changed in a location over time. DESIGN: Participants completed GPS-tagged surveys on smartphones to report on characteristics of their listening environments. Coordinates were used to create indices that described how much listening environment characteristics changed in a location over time. Indices computed in one location were compared to indices computed across all locations for each participant. STUDY SAMPLE: 54 adults with hearing loss participated in this study (26 males and 38 females; 30 experienced hearing aid users and 24 new users). RESULTS: A location dependency was observed for all characteristics. Characteristics were significantly different from one another in their stability over time. CONCLUSIONS: Listening environment characteristics changed less over time in a given location than in participants’ lives generally. The effectiveness of GPS-dependent hearing aid settings likely depends on the accuracy and location definition of the GPS feature.