Loudness perception is influenced by long-term hearing aid use.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Psychoacoustics
• Hearing Science

Background:

• Hearing aids are commonly used by individuals with hearing loss to improve auditory perception.
• Understanding how hearing aid use affects loudness perception is crucial for audiological rehabilitation.
• Previous research has not fully elucidated differences in loudness scaling between hearing aid users and non-users.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate potential disparities in loudness perception between long-term, full-time hearing aid users and individuals with hearing impairment who do not use hearing aids.
• To compare categorical loudness scaling of pure-tone stimuli in these two groups.

Main Methods:

• Categorical loudness scaling was performed using pure-tone stimuli on hearing-impaired subjects.
• A group of 18 full-time hearing aid users (daily use ≤15 hours) was compared to 18 hearing-impaired non-users with similar hearing thresholds (50-75 dB HL).
• Mean loudness category levels at a specific frequency were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Long-term, full-time hearing aid users (50-75 dB HL hearing loss) rated the category 'loud' at a mean level 4.5 dB higher than non-users.
• This difference in 'loud' category perception was statistically significant (P<0.05).
• No significant differences in loudness perception were observed for lower loudness categories.

Conclusions:

• Full-time hearing aid use may alter the perception of loudness, particularly at higher intensity levels.
• Hearing aid users may require higher sound levels to perceive sounds as 'loud' compared to non-users with similar hearing loss.
• The duration of hearing aid use (≥6 months) did not correlate with the perception of the 'loud' category.