Auditory profiling and hearing-aid satisfaction in hearing-aid candidates

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Hearing-impaired (HI) listeners often face communication challenges in noisy environments, despite hearing aids (HAs) restoring audibility.
• Current HA fitting relies on audiograms, which may not fully capture individual listening difficulties or predict HA satisfaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify clinically relevant tests beyond the audiogram that correlate with hearing aid satisfaction.
• To explore if measures of auditory processing and speech intelligibility predict hearing aid outcomes.

Main Methods:

• 29 HI and 26 normal-hearing listeners completed tests of spectral/temporal resolution, binaural hearing, and speech intelligibility in various noise conditions.
• HI listeners also underwent a working-memory test and completed a questionnaire on HA treatment satisfaction post-fitting.

Main Results:

• Masking release in fluctuating versus stationary noise was the only measure significantly correlating with audibility.
• HI listeners reporting less benefit from noise fluctuations in speech intelligibility experienced greater HA satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Auditory difficulties in HI listeners are diverse and not fully predictable by audiograms alone.
• Measures of temporal resolution and speech perception in both stationary and fluctuating noise are valuable additions to auditory profiles.