Acceptable Noise Level as a Measure of Directional Hearing Aid Benefit

Abstract

An acceptable noise level (ANL) procedure for measuring hearing aid directional benefit was compared with masked speech reception threshold (SRT) and front-to-back ratio (FBR) procedures. ANL is the difference between the most comfortable listening level and the maximum accepted background noise level while listening to speech. Forty adult subjects wearing their own binaural hearing aids were evaluated in omnidirectional and directional modes. The subjects were fitted with a variety of hearing aids by clinical audiologists, independent of the study. For each procedure, speech and noise were presented through loudspeakers located at 0 degrees and 180 degrees azimuth, respectively. Mean ANL (3.5 dB), SRT (3.7 dB), and FBR (2.9 dB) directional benefits were not significantly different. The ANL and masked SRT benefits were significantly correlated. The ANL appears to be a quick, clinician/user friendly procedure for measuring hearing aid directional benefit.

Acceptable noise level (ANL) with Danish and non-semantic speech materials in adult hearing-aid users

“…The MCID should for example have a size which is sufficient to allow the user of a certain hearing instrument to experience the benefi t from an algorithm designed to reduce the amplifi cation of noise in the environment. Earlier reports (Freyaldenhoven et al, 2005a;Mueller et al, 2006;Kim & Bryan, 2011) suggest that hearing aid features like directional microphone systems and noise reductions might yield a mean ANL improvement in the order of 3 to 4 dB. Based on these observations we selected 4 dB as the MCID for ANL in the present study.…”

“…Since ANL is proposed for prediction of future HA use patterns (Nabelek et al, 1991 and also for evaluation of benefi t from certain HA algorithms (Freyaldenhoven et al, 2005a;Mueller et al, 2006;Kim & Bryan, 2011), it is important to relate the CR with the minimally clinical important difference (MCID) (Beaton et al, 2002). The MCID should for example have a size which is sufficient to allow the user of a certain hearing instrument to experience the benefi t from an algorithm designed to reduce the amplifi cation of noise in the environment.…”

Amplification With Digital Noise Reduction and the Perception of Annoying and Aversive Sounds

“…12 There are laboratory data suggesting that both directional microphone technology and DNR can reduce the aided ANL. 13,14 Moreover, there is limited research showing that a patient's ANL is related to hearing aid satisfaction; that is, the smaller the ANL, the greater the probability that the patient will be a successful hearing aid user. 15 Nabelek, 12 however, reports that at least for normal-hearing listeners, there is very little correlation between the subjective report of background noise in the real world and the acceptance of background noise when listening to speech in background noise.…”

Acceptable noise level: Repeatability with Danish and non-semantic speech materials for adults with normal hearing

“…The ANL in dB is the difference between the MCL for running speech and the highest background noise level (BNL) that is acceptable when following the running speech (Nabelek et al, 2004). ANL has been used for prediction of individual hearing aid use patterns (full time use or occasional use/no use at all), and has also been used to assess the benefit of hearing aid algorithms for reduction of background noise (Freyaldenhoven et al, 2005a;Mueller et al, 2006). Danish and Swedish versions of the ANL test were described by Brännström et al (2011).…”