The present study will investigate the benefit of hearing aids for speech intelligibility (in both quiet and noisy environments) compared to the unaided condition. Participants will include adults with moderate to moderately severe hearing impairment. The participants will complete laboratory-based speech intelligibility assessments with binaural hearing aids and without hearing aids.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
15
Participants will complete testing while using a novel hearing aid which has been fit to compensate for their hearing loss.
Phonak Audiology Research Center
Aurora, Illinois, United States
Speech Intelligibility in Quiet.
Speech intelligibility for monosyllabic words presented in quiet. The words are presented at a fixed level and the percentage of words correctly repeated is calculated. A higher percentage is better. This was done in both unaided and aided conditions.
Time frame: Day 1 and Day 15
Speech Intelligibility in Noise, Expressed as the Signal to Noise Ratio at Which Participant Can Correctly Repeat 50% of the Words
Speech intelligibility on key words for sentences presented in noise. Noise is presented at a fixed level, and the words are presented at adaptive levels, below and above the noise level. A negative number is better, because it indicates the participant can correctly repeat 50% of the words when the words are below the level of noise. This was done at baseline in the unaided condition on Day 1 of the study, and in the aided condition on Day 15.
Time frame: Day 1 and Day 15
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