Listening-Related Fatigue in Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss

Abstract

Purpose Listening-related fatigue is an understudied construct that may contribute to the auditory, educational, and psychosocial problems experienced by children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL). Herein, we present an overview of listening-related fatigue in school-age children with hearing loss (CHL), with a focus on children with UHL. Method Following a review of research examining listening-related fatigue in adults and CHL, we present preliminary findings exploring the effects of unilateral and bilateral hearing loss on listening-related fatigue in children. For these exploratory analyses, we used data collected from our ongoing work developing and validating a tool, the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale, for measuring listening-related fatigue in children. Presently, we are assessing 3 versions of the fatigue scale—child self-report, parent proxy, and teacher proxy. Using these scales, data have been collected from more than 900 participants. Data from children with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss and for children with no hearing loss are compared with adult Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale data. Results Results of our literature review and exploratory analyses suggest that adults and CHL are at increased risk for listening-related fatigue. Importantly, this increased risk was similar in magnitude regardless of whether the loss was unilateral or bilateral. Subjective ratings, based on child self-report and parent proxy report, were consistent, suggesting that children with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss experienced greater listening-related fatigue than children with no hearing loss. In contrast, results based on teacher proxy report were not sensitive to the effects of hearing loss. Conclusions Children with UHL are at increased risk for listening-related fatigue, and the magnitude of fatigue is similar to that experienced by children with bilateral hearing loss. Problems of listening-related fatigue in school-age CHL may be better identified by CHL themselves and their parents than by teachers and specialists working with the children.

Older adults show a more sustained pattern of effortful listening than young adults

“…The Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale (VFS) was administered to measure daily life experiences of listening-related fatigue. The VFS is designed to measure fatigue that is experienced specifically in the context of listening (see Bess et al, 2020 for a brief summary of the scale development process) .…”

Predictors of listening-related fatigue across the adult lifespan

“…The Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale for Adults (VFS-A) was administered to measure daily life experiences of listening-related fatigue. The VFS-A is designed to measure fatigue that is experienced specifically in the context of listening (Bess et al, 2020;Hornsby et al, in press). The VFS-A has been shown to have high marginal reliability (r = .98), adequate test-retest reliability (r = .60 -.69), and good construct validity across the adult age-range (Hornsby et al, in press).…”

Hearing with One Ear: Consequences and Treatments for Profound Unilateral Hearing Loss

“…Increased effort is required to compensate for unilateral hearing loss in complex listening environments [17]. Over time, such additional stressors result in auditory fatigue [13,16,18,19] and reduced performance at work [9]. The increased hearing handicap in this group is most strongly linked to deficits in spatial perception.…”