Short-term benefit in a very large group (N = 4,584) following hearing aid treatment was estimated using a revised version of the Self-Assessment of Communication (SAC-Hx). A total of 4,584 veterans with adult-onset hearing loss and mean audiometric findings consistent with a mild to severe, sloping, symmetrical, sensorineural hearing impairment were fitted with hearing aids. Responses to the SAC-Hx were gathered prior to and then 6 weeks following hearing aid fitting. Benefit was defined as the difference between the baseline and the posttreatment SAC-Hx scores. Hearing aid treatment resulted in robust and statistically significant benefit in each category of self-perceived communication consequences. Prior experience influenced benefit: New hearing aid users demonstrated the greatest magnitude of benefit, but even previously satisfied and dissatisfied users obtained significant benefit after new hearing aid fitting. Duration of experience did not have a remarkable effect on the magnitude of benefit: All groups with various durations of experience obtained comparable benefit. Severity of the baseline scores paralleled degree of hearing impairment when impairment was defined using a better ear pure tone average at 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, and 4,000 Hz. Also, severity of perceived communication consequences paralleled poorer monosyllabic word recognition. Hearing aid treatment provided a functional, robust, and statistically significant benefit to individuals in all categories of hearing impairment (normal, mild, moderate, severe, and profound). This report demonstrates the feasibility of the SAC-Hx as a tool to efficiently assess outcome domains in hearing aid fitting.
The identification of synthetic speech syllables which incorporated identical formant transition frequency changes in three different transition duration contexts (40, 120, 240 ms) or which incorporated identical transition duration changes in three different transition frequency contexts (where F2 locus was 800, 1520, or 2120 Hz) was assessed for young and old normal-hearing and sensorineurally hearing-impaired listeners. The older listeners, independent of hearing-impairment, demonstrated a significant decrement in identification performance for all experimental continua. The hearing-impaired listeners, independent of age, demonstrated a significant decrement in identification performance for most, but not all, experimental continua. Specifically, identification of syllables incorporating frequency changes was not significantly affected in the 240-ms duration context but significantly poorer in the contexts utilizing the two shorter transition durations. Furthermore, identification of syllables incorporating duration changes was not significantly affected in the 800-Hz transition locus context but significantly poorer in the higher frequency contexts.
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