Purpose: Although many previous studies related to sentence recognition of the hearing-impaired elderly have found their poor performance under various distracting listening conditions, there is still a lack of information for their error type in the sentence. The purpose of present study was to analyze a prominent error type among nine parts of speech in various levels of noise and fast speech conditions for the hearing-impaired elderly. Methods: Seven old listeners with moderate sensorineural hearing loss participated. For estimating their sentence recognition, Korean Speech Perception in Noise was applied for four signal-to-noise ratios (no noise, +6, +3, 0 dB) and four time alteration conditions (±30%, ±15%), while being presented at the most comfortable level to each participant. Total percent error and substitution error patterns of the sentence recognition were analyzed as a function of conditions. Results: The percent error of sentence recognition was increased as either noise level increased or speech rate was faster. Among the parts of speech, noun substitution error pattern showed the highest number for all participants regardless levels of noise and time alteration. Interestingly, the noun substitution error pattern was outstood in quiet and 15% time compression. Conclusion: Results of the present study suggest that aural rehabilitation of the hearing-impaired elderly may focus on reducing and correcting the noun substitution error to improve their sentence recognition.

This study was aimed to provide translated questionnaires in Korean including Satisfaction with Amplification in Daily Life (SADL), Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI), and International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) and analyze their reliabilities and validities for measuring and improving hearing-aid satisfaction level in Korea. Methods: Fifty people who were fitted with their new hearing-aids participated (70.4 ± 12.4). All the participants answered Korean-IOI-HA and newly translated SADL and COSI in Korean to measure hearing aid satisfaction, when they visited the hearing-aid centers where they were fitted hearing-aids initially. The hearing-aid types were Completely In the Canal for 29, In The Canal for 10, and Receiver In the Canal for 11. Monaural and binaural users were 20 and 30, respectively. Out of fifty, fifteen performed test-retest measurements. Results: Translated SADL, COSI, and IOI-HA's means and Cronbach's alpha values were 4.76 and 0.83, 3.60 and 0.83, and 3.73 and 0.70. There was a significant correlation coefficient among three questionnaires. No significant difference according to hearing-aid types was found. A significant difference for the wearing manners between bilateral and unilateral hearing aids was found. The correlations between test and retest were 0.83 for SADL, 0.71 for COSI, and 0.74 for IOI-HI indicating good reliabilities. Conclusion: The translated versions of SADL, COSI and IOI-HA were validated as useful tools for measuring satisfaction of hearing-aids and the fitting in Korea. Using these questionnaires, better satisfaction level of hearing-aids in Korea could be provided in the future.

Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) is a model that predicts speech intelligibility based on a person's hearing thresholds and audible speech cues in given frequency bands. The SII is able to predict how loss of audibility due to hearing loss affects intelligibility of speech. Thus, the SII has been applied clinically in evaluation and fitting for hearing aids to quantify how much audibility is compensated by amplification. Although the SII known as Articulation Index was first introduced during the 20 th century, calculation methods and aspects of the SII have been continually refined and developed for clinical use. This article provides (1) a brief history of the SII, (2) a view of components and calculation methods of the SII, (3) a review of applications for clinical use, and (4) a discussion of limitations and aspects that need to be considered for clinical applications in future.

Purpose: This study was to determine effects of three stimulus frequencies on tympanometry and to compare with Distortion Produtct Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE) for regular and special school-age children. Methods: A total number of 182 school-age children, 152 recruited from regular elementary school and 30 from special school, participated. All participants were evaluated by tympanogram and DPOAE. Tympanograms were tested by 226, 678, and 1,000 Hz and analyzed with static compliance (SC) and earcanal volume (EV). Results: Depending on three stimulus frequencies, SCs and EVs were 0.49, 1.45, and 1.26 ml and 0.92, 2.98, 4.52 cm 3 in regular school-age group and 0.56, 1.58, 1.29 ml and 0.98, 3.0, 4.48 cm 3 in special school-age group. There were statistical significant differences among three frequencies but no difference between regular and special school-age groups for both SCs and EVs (p < 0.05). The pass and fail rate of DPOAE was 87.2% and 12.8% for regular school-age group and 57.6% and 42.4% for special school-age group, showing a statistical significant difference between groups (p < 0.05). Agreement rate between tympanograms and DPOAE results was the highest in 678 Hz. Conclusion: While there was no difference in middle ear status between groups, DPOAE results referred that the inner ear status could be poor for the special school-age group. Therefore, more interests of hearing status should be aroused to the special school-age children. Additionally, the 678 Hz seems to be more useful for screening school-age children. Further, more data with pure tone examination be supplemented for the certain conclusion.