Recognition of speech in noise with hearing aids using dual microphones

Fifty subjects with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss and prior experience with amplification were evaluated at two sites (25 subjects at each site). Speech recognition in noise scores were measured using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) for each subject while wearing binaural behind-the-ear hearing aids allowing switching between two fitting algorithms ("basic" and "party") and two microphone conditions (single microphone omnidirectional and dual-microphone directional). Results revealed an average improvement in signal-to-noise ration (SNR) of 7.4 to 8.5 dB at the two sites for the directional conditions in comparison to the omnidirectional conditions. No significant improvement in SNR was measured between the two fitting algorithms. In addition, the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (PHAB) (Site I) and the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) (Site II) were administered. Results revealed that the benefit scores for background noise and reduced cues (Site I) and background noise and aversiveness of sounds (Site II) were significantly higher than those reported in the established norms. Finally, 76 percent of the subjects of Site I reported that the experimental hearing aids provided "significantly better" or "better" performance than their current hearing aids.