[Digital vs. analog hearing aids for children. Is there a method for making an objective comparison possible?]

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Digital Signal Processing
• Pediatric Medicine

Background:

• Subjective patient reports often highlight digital hearing aid benefits, yet objective documentation via standard diagnostic methods remains challenging.
• Evaluating new hearing aid technologies in pediatric populations requires robust methodologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the performance of a fully digital hearing aid against a digitally programmable analog hearing aid in children.
• To assess the efficacy of a "virtual hearing aid" in evaluating hearing aid performance in a pediatric cohort.

Main Methods:

• A double-blinded crossover study involving 17 schoolchildren with moderate-to-severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
• Comparison of a fully digital hearing aid (DigiFocus compact/Oticon) and a digitally programmable two-channel analog hearing aid.
• Utilized a "virtual hearing aid" for subjective comparison and speech recognition tasks.

Main Results:

• A significant subjective preference for the fully digital hearing aid was observed, with 13 out of 17 children choosing it.
• Routine diagnostic methods failed to yield significant performance differences between the hearing aid types.
• The "virtual hearing aid" approach revealed significant differences in subjective comparison and speech recognition performance.

Conclusions:

• While routine diagnostics may not capture them, fully digital hearing aids offer discernible subjective advantages for children.
• The "virtual hearing aid" is a viable tool for direct hearing aid comparison and effective double-blind testing in pediatric audiology.