Preferred Hearing Aid Response Characteristics Under Acoustic and Telecoil Coupling Conditions

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Hearing Science
• Assistive Listening Devices

Background:

• Telephone use remains challenging for individuals with hearing impairments, even with hearing aids (HA).
• Current research prioritizes HA performance for general communication, with less focus on telephone-specific fitting preferences.
• Telecoil coupling may necessitate different HA characteristics due to telephone system limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the preferred real ear aided response (REAR) for hearing-impaired listeners using telephones.
• To compare preferred HA responses under acoustic and telecoil coupling conditions.
• To inform HA fitting strategies for improved telephone communication.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated preferred REAR in hearing-impaired listeners coupled to a standard telephone receiver.
• Tested both acoustic and telecoil coupling conditions.
• Compared listener preferences against established prescriptive fitting formulae.

Main Results:

• Participants preferred significantly more low-frequency gain than predicted by three popular prescriptive formulae.
• A gradually rising to flat response was the most preferred setting for most participants.
• Telecoil coupling revealed distinct gain preferences compared to acoustic coupling.

Conclusions:

• Current prescriptive formulae may not adequately address the low-frequency gain needs of hearing aid users during telephone communication.
• HA fitting adjustments, particularly increased low-frequency gain, are warranted for optimal telephone use.
• Further research into telecoil coupling and HA response optimization for telephony is recommended.