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Related Experiment Videos

Predicting directional hearing aid benefit for individual listeners.

T Ricketts1, H G Mueller

  • 1Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory, Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, USA.

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
|February 24, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Directional microphone hearing aids improve speech understanding in noise. Audiologic factors like hearing loss or speech scores do not reliably predict directional benefit, suggesting wider use for hearing aid users.

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Comparison of performance across three directional hearing aids.

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology·2000

Area of Science:

  • Audiology
  • Speech-Language Pathology
  • Hearing Aid Technology

Background:

  • Directional microphone hearing aids are increasingly common for improving speech intelligibility in noisy environments.
  • Individual variability exists in the degree of benefit derived from directional hearing aids.
  • Predicting directional benefit from audiologic factors could optimize hearing aid selection.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if audiometric configuration slope, high-frequency hearing loss, or aided omnidirectional speech-in-noise performance can predict directional hearing aid benefit.
  • To determine the predictability of directional amplification outcomes based on audiological characteristics.

Main Methods:

  • Examined correlations between audiometric factors (slope, high-frequency loss) and directional benefit across three studies.

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  • Assessed the relationship between aided omnidirectional speech-in-noise intelligibility and directional benefit.
  • Analyzed data from hearing-impaired listeners using directional microphone hearing aids.

    • Main Results:

    • No significant correlation was found between audiometric configuration slope or high-frequency hearing loss and the benefit from directional microphones.
    • A significant negative relationship between aided omnidirectional performance and directional benefit was observed in one study, but with high individual variability.
    • Most participants, even those with excellent omnidirectional performance, experienced substantial additional benefit from directional amplification.

    Conclusions:

    • Audiogram slope and high-frequency hearing loss are not reliable predictors of directional hearing aid benefit.
    • While aided omnidirectional performance may show some correlation, individual variability is high, and significant directional benefit is still possible.
    • Audiologists should consider recommending directional amplification for patients irrespective of their audiogram configuration, high-frequency hearing loss, or unaided speech intelligibility scores.