Manipulation of Hearing Aid Gain and Tinnitus Relief: A Paired Comparison Study

The objective of the study is to compare amplification strategies on tinnitus relief. A repeated measure research design was used to determine the best strategy that provides a significant relief on tinnitus and improvements in speech perception.

We recruited 20 participants in the age range of 30-60 years (mean age = 47.95 years) having mild to moderately severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss with continuous tonal tinnitus. We grouped the participants into mild and severe, based on the scores obtained in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory. We evaluated tinnitus pitch and loudness using the adaptive method. Besides, we assessed signal to noise ratio 50 (SNR 50) from each of the programs. We carried out a paired comparison method to determine the best strategy among the 3 in which the maximum preference score was obtained on tinnitus relief by a test hearing aid programmed with 3 programs.

Each group of participants significantly preferred the strategy for the gain in hearing aid set at tinnitus pitch on tinnitus. However, there was no significant difference between the SNR 50 scores in the 3 gain settings.

An additional gain set at tinnitus pitch after alleviating hearing loss by the prescriptive method was found to be the best strategy for effective masking of tinnitus and that led to tinnitus relief without compromising speech perception.