Document Detail


User preference and reliability of bilateral hearing aid gain adjustments.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  18669129     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the consistency and reliability of user adjustments to hearing aid gain and the resulting effects on speech understanding. Sixteen bilaterally aided individuals with hearing loss adjusted their hearing aid gain to optimize listening comfort and speech clarity while listening to speech in quiet and noisy backgrounds. Following these adjustments, participants readjusted their aids to optimize clarity and comfort while listening to speech in quiet. These final gain settings were recorded and compared to those provided by NAL-NL1 prescriptive targets. In addition, speech understanding was tested with the hearing aids set at target and user gain settings. Performance differences between the gain settings were then assessed. Study results revealed that although some listeners preferred more or less gain than prescribed, on average, user and prescribed gain settings were similar in both ears. Some individuals, however, made gain adjustments between ears resulting in "gain mismatches." These "mismatches" were often inconsistent across trials suggesting that these adjustments were unreliable. Speech testing results, however, showed no significant difference across the different gain settings suggesting that the gain deviations introduced in this study were not large enough to significantly affect speech understanding.
Authors:
Benjamin W Y Hornsby; H Gustav Mueller
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of the American Academy of Audiology     Volume:  19     ISSN:  1050-0545     ISO Abbreviation:  J Am Acad Audiol     Publication Date:  2008 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2008-08-01     Completed Date:  2008-11-04     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9114646     Medline TA:  J Am Acad Audiol     Country:  Canada    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  158-70     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Hearing and Speech Science, Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory, Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, Room 8310 Medical Center East, South Tower, 1215 21st Ave, South, Nashville, TN 37232-8242, USA. ben.hornsby@vanderbilt.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Auditory Threshold / physiology
Choice Behavior*
Female
Hearing Aids*
Hearing Loss, Bilateral / therapy*
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / therapy*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Prosthesis Fitting*
Reproducibility of Results
Speech Perception

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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