Comparison of unaided MCLs and use-gain of hearing aids

Unaided MCLs for narrow bands of noise centered at 1 000, 2 000, 3 000 and 4 000 Hz were compared with the use-gain of hearing aids worn by 10 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss. In addition, for eight subjects, MCLs measured at the time of the hearing aid evaluation were compared with MCLs observed at the time of hearing aid follow-up. Results of the study suggest that (1) hearing aid use-gain can be accurately predicted on the basis of the MCLs for the narrow bands of noise, and (2) the hearing-impaired subjects were highly consistent in their MCL judgments for narrow-band noise.