Noise reduction strategies for elderly, hearing-impaired listeners

A variety of technical features are available in hearing aids in order to reduce the negative effects of background noise. In this investigation, 16 elderly sensorineurally hearing-impaired hearing aid candidates provided word recognition responses while listening through simple linear amplification and through a hearing aid featuring one of the following: (1) high-frequency emphasis amplification, (2) a directional microphone, (3) automatic signal processing (ASP) circuitry, and (4) ZETA noise reduction circuitry. The subjects provided responses to monosyllabic words presented in a background of cafeteria noise. Results indicated that all four noise reduction techniques provided a similar magnitude of benefit over linear amplification. In a follow-up investigation, five of the original 16 subjects were recalled in order to listen through either simple linear amplification or through the ZETA circuitry with and without the benefit of visual and contextual cues. The subjects repeated sentences presented in a background of cafeteria noise. Without the benefit of the supplemental cues, the ZETA aid allowed for superior performance when compared to the linear aid. When the visual and contextual cues were available, the ZETA aid continued to provide a performance advantage over linear amplification.