Predictors of aided speech recognition, with and without frequency compression, in older adults

The aim was to investigate whether cognitive and/or audiological measures predict aided speech recognition, both with and without frequency compression (FC).

Participants wore hearing aids, with and without FC for a total of 12 weeks (six weeks in each signal processing condition, ABA design). Performance on a sentence-in-noise recognition test was assessed at the end of each six-week period. Audiological (severity of high frequency hearing loss, presence of dead regions) and cognitive (reading span and trail making test scores) measures were obtained and assessed as predictors of sentence-in-noise recognition with and without FC enabled.

Twelve experienced hearing-aid users (aged 65-84 years old) with moderate-to-severe high-frequency hearing loss took part in the study.

The results suggest that both auditory and cognitive factors can be predictive of sentence-in-noise recognition with conventional amplification. However, only auditory factors were significantly correlated with the degree of benefit obtained from FC.

The strongest predictor of aided speech recognition, both with and without FC, was high frequency hearing loss. Cognitive performance was also a predictor of benefit from conventional amplification, but not of additional benefit from the use of FC.