Acclimatization in first-time hearing aid users using three different fitting protocols

Reber, Monika Bertges; Kompis, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.anl.2005.05.008

Cited by 32 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Similarly, acclimatization to hearing aids has been reported to take several months. [47,48] Additionally, hearing aid use is often recommended to be started in quiet surroundings with a gradual shift in the use of amplification in noisier, more difficult listening conditions. [6] The use of hearing protection often succeeds better if it is started while rehearsing alone, and only after that earplug use is started in orchestra rehearsals, and finally, in concerts.…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symphony orchestra musicians′ use of hearing protection and attenuation of custom-made hearing protectors as measured with two different real-ear attenuation at threshold methods

2011

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Despite a high level of sound exposure and a fairly large selection of earplugs available, musicians have often been reported to use personal hearing protectors only seldom. For better hearing conservation, it is important to identify and eliminate the causes for the low motivation to use hearing protection. We explored the usage rate of custom-molded musician's earplugs (ER-15) among 15 symphony orchestra musicians with a questionnaire, and measured the attenuation properties of their earplugs with a Real-Ear Attenuation at Threshold (REAT) procedure in a sound field. Earplug use was found to be low, and the musicians reported that earplugs hampered listening to their own and their colleagues' playing; earplugs affected either timbre or dynamics, or both. Additionally, several reasons related to discomfort of use were itemized, but the musicians who consistently used their earplugs did so in spite of problems with use. The REAT values obtained in sound field were relatively close to the manufacturer's nominal specifications, being 13.7 dB, on average. In the frequency range studied (0.125-8 kHz), individual variation in REAT was, however, up to 15 dB across the measured frequencies. Fluctuation in attenuation might be related to low use of hearing protectors, and REAT measured at fixed center frequencies may be too robust a method to uncover it. We therefore tested 10 additional subjects to find out whether a sweeping signal used in Bιkιsy audiometry would bring more detailed information on earplug attenuation. Mean attenuation was found to be somewhat closer to the nominal attenuation of the ER-9 and ER-15 earplugs up to about 1 kHz, whereas REAT measurements in sound field revealed more even attenuation at frequencies between 1 and 6 kHz. No significant association was found between earplug attenuation properties and earplug use. It was concluded that support and determination to get accustomed to hearing protector use are important factors in hearing conservation.

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Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symphony orchestra musicians′ use of hearing protection and attenuation of custom-made hearing protectors as measured with two different real-ear attenuation at threshold methods

2011

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“…It is hard to decipher because 1) these studies evaluated the effects of different hearing aid frequency gain settings rather than linear versus linear processing and 2) this claim is still being actively investigated. Some investigators have reported that objective performance increases with hearing aid experience (Kuk, Potts, Valente, Lee, & Picirrillo, 2003; Reber & Kompis, 2005; Yund et al, 2006), while others have not shown a significant change in objective speech recognition (Flynn, Davis & Pogash, 2004; Humes, Wilson, Barlow & Garner, 2002). Munro and Lutman (2003) suggested that hearing aid experience may influence measured hearing aid benefit as presentation level of the speech signal increases from 55 to 69 dB SPL.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Audibility and Multichannel Wide Dynamic Range Compression on Consonant Recognition for Listeners with Severe Hearing Loss

et al. 2009

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Objective-This study examined the effects of multichannel wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification and stimulus audibility on consonant recognition and error patterns.Design-Listeners had either severe or mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Each listener was monaurally fit with a wearable hearing aid using typical clinical procedures, frequency-gain parameters and a hybrid of clinically prescribed compression ratios for DSL (Scollie et al., 2005) and NAL-NL (Dillon, 1999). Consonant-vowel nonsense syllables were presented in soundfield at multiple input levels (50, 65, 80 dB SPL). Test conditions were four-channel fast-acting WDRC amplification and a control compression limiting (CL) amplification condition. Listeners identified the stimulus heard from choices presented on an on-screen display. A between-subject repeated measures design was used to evaluate consonant recognition and consonant confusion patterns.Results-Fast-acting WDRC provided a considerable audibility advantage at 50 dB SPL, especially for listeners with severe hearing loss. Listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss received less audibility improvement from the fast-acting WDRC amplification, for conversational and high level speech, compared to listeners with severe hearing loss. Analysis of WDRC benefit scores revealed that listeners had slightly lower scores with fast-acting WDRC amplification (relative to CL) when WDRC provided minimal improvement in audibility. The negative effect was greater for listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss compared to their counterparts with severe hearing loss.Conclusions-All listeners, but particularly the severe loss group, benefited from fast-acting WDRC amplification for low-level speech. For conversational and higher speech levels (i.e., when WDRC does not confer a significant audibility advantage), fast-acting WDRC amplification appears to slightly degrade performance. Listeners' consonant confusion patterns suggest that this negative effect may be partly due to fast-acting WDRC-induced distortions which alter specific consonant features. In support of this view, audibility accounted for a greater percentage of the variance in listeners' performance with CL amplification compared to fast-acting WDRC amplification.

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“…Similarly, Cox and Alexander (2002) stated that 84% of their subjects had worn their hearing aids for at least three months prior to completing the IOI-HA. In addition, earlier studies (e.g., Cox et al, 1996;Humes and Wilson, 2003;Kuk et al, 2003;Munro and Lutman, 2004;Reber and Kompis, 2005;Prates and Iorio, 2006;Yund et al, 2006) investigated users' objective audiometric scores and subjective questionnaire results and found that most acclimatization occurred within the first few months after the hearing aid fittings. Administration of the questionnaires at least three months following the end of the trial periods here was also consistent with our personal experience.…”

Section: Participants Hearing Aid Fitting Protocol and Disseminatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Hearing Aid Outcomes: Effects of Gender and Experience on Patients' Use and Satisfaction

Williams¹,

Johnson²,

Danhauer³

2009

J Am Acad Audiol

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Gender and hearing aid experience did not influence these patients' responses on the IOI-HA, and all respondents were satisfied with their hearing aids and the practice that dispensed them. No major differences were found between these patients' IOI-HA results and normative data suggesting that both sets of respondents were satisfied with their hearing aids. However, limited statistical comparisons for the satisfaction and quality of life items revealed significant differences in favor of these participants' scores over those in the normative study. This suggested that the advanced hearing aid technology used here had a positive effect on patients' ratings and that the IOI-HA norms should be updated periodically to reflect changes in technology.

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Acclimatization in first-time hearing aid users using three different fitting protocols

Cited by 32 publications

References 19 publications

Symphony orchestra musicians′ use of hearing protection and attenuation of custom-made hearing protectors as measured with two different real-ear attenuation at threshold methods

Symphony orchestra musicians′ use of hearing protection and attenuation of custom-made hearing protectors as measured with two different real-ear attenuation at threshold methods

Effects of Audibility and Multichannel Wide Dynamic Range Compression on Consonant Recognition for Listeners with Severe Hearing Loss

Hearing Aid Outcomes: Effects of Gender and Experience on Patients' Use and Satisfaction

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