[Correlation between the APHAB questionnaire and the Freiburg monosyllabic test without + with noise]

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Hearing Science
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Hearing aid fitting (HAF) success is commonly measured using questionnaires like the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and speech-audiometry tests.
• The Freiburg monosyllabic word test (FBE) and its noise-included version (FBE-S) are speech-audiometry tools used in HAF.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlations between speech-audiometry results (FBE, FBE-S) and APHAB outcomes before and after HAF.
• To assess the relationship between specific APHAB subscales (ease of communication, background noise, reverberation) and HAF benefit.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 156 subjects undergoing HAF, including FBE, FBE-S, and APHAB measurements.
• Application of Spearman's correlation and Cohen's effect size after data normality exclusion.

Main Results:

• No significant correlations were found between APHAB subscales (EC, RV, ECBNRV) and HAF benefit measured by FBE and FBE-S.
• Most correlation coefficients exhibited weak positive effect sizes.
• A moderate positive effect size was observed in only six combinations, primarily for the EC subscale.

Conclusions:

• The weak effect sizes suggest that speech-audiometry and APHAB results are not independent but rather complementary in assessing hearing loss and HAF benefit.
• Individual differences in hearing loss compensation capabilities may explain the observed effect sizes.