Comparing Loudness Tolerance and Acceptable Noise Level in Listeners With Hearing Loss

Franklin, Clifford; White, Letitia; Franklin, Thomas C.; Livengood, Lindsay G.

doi:10.1177/0031512516655367

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…It is of note that no adverse hearing impairment was reported, and that listening to music for 2 hr a day for 3 mo at a comfortable volume level between 75 and 80 dBA had no deleterious effect for participants with hearing loss in our study. In addition, people with tinnitus or hearing loss had decreased sound tolerance, that is, their thresholds of comfortable listening level was less than those without tinnitus or hearing loss (Franklin et al 2016; Raj-Koziak et al 2021). Therefore, in terms of safety, TMNMT had the prospect of widely clinical application in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Tailor-Made Notched Music Training Versus Tinnitus Retraining Therapy in Adults With Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

et al. 2022

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Objectives: Chronic subjective tinnitus can have a serious effect on daily life, even causing serious psychological disorders. Currently there are no specific effective solutions or cures. Tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT) is a recently proposed sound therapy that has simpler processes and a higher compliance rate than tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), a widely used treatment for chronic subjective tinnitus. This study explores the therapeutic effect of TMNMT in comparison to TRT to highlight its clinical value. Design: The study was a randomized controlled, single-blinded clinical trial. One hundred twenty eligible participants were randomly assigned to receive TMNMT (n = 60) or TRT (n = 60) for 3 mo with concurrent follow-up. It should be noted that the duration of sound treatment in TRT was modified to 2 hr per day for better feasibility in practice. The primary outcome was mean change in tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) measured at baseline (T0), 1 mo (T1) and 3 mo (T2) after intervention. Change in visual analog scale (VAS) was measured as a secondary outcome. A comparison of therapeutic effectiveness between TMNMT and TRT was evaluated by repeated measure analysis of variance. Results: One hundred and twelve (93%) of participants took part in the study, of which 64 were men and 48 women. Mean (SD) age was 42.80 (12.91) years. Fifty-eight were allocated to receive TMNMT and 54 to receive TRT. The between-group difference in primary outcome was −6.90 points (95% confidence interval [CI], −13.53 to −0.27) at T1 and −6.17 points (95% CI, −13.04 to 0.71) at T2. These results closely reached to clinical significance of tinnitus-related effective relief. For the secondary outcome, the mean value in the TMNMT group was 0.83 points (95% CI, 0.12 to 1.54), significantly lower than the mean value of the TRT group. The differences in THI and VAS between the two groups were statistically significant after intervention. Further analysis showed that age and baseline THI and VAS scores were associated with change in THI and VAS scores after interventions. Conclusions: Both TMNMT and TRT were able to alleviate chronic subjective tinnitus effectively after a 3 month intervention. When the two forms of therapy were compared TMNMT appeared to be more effective and consequently potentially superior to TRT for reducing tinnitus loudness and functional and emotional disturbance associated with chronic subjective tinnitus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Tailor-Made Notched Music Training Versus Tinnitus Retraining Therapy in Adults With Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

et al. 2022

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“…For example, ANL is not influenced by age, gender, pure tone average, loudness tolerance, or speech understanding in noise. 3 14 15 16 17 18 However, a few listener characteristics may influence ANL. Those with better low frequency hearing thresholds may have higher ANLs, 19 and individuals with higher levels of self-control may have lower ANLs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Transducer Selection on the Acceptable Noise Level

2022

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Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the impact of transducer (loudspeaker, supra-aural headphones, and insert earphones) selection on the acceptable noise level (ANL). Study Sample Thirty young adults with normal hearing who reported difficulty with background noise served as participants. Research Design A repeated-measures experimental design was employed. Data Collection and Analysis Most comfortable listening level (MCL) and background noise level (BNL) were measured for all participants using three transducers (loudspeaker, supra-aural headphones, and insert earphones). ANL was computed as the difference between the mean MCL and the mean BNL. Results Analytical statistics revealed that ANL did not differ due to the transducer used. However, there were statistically significant differences found for MCL and BNL across transducers. Conclusions Results of this study indicate that ANL is not vulnerable to the selection of transducer and that ANLs can be compared across transducer types. Researchers should cautiously interpret findings across studies when discussing the base measures of MCL and BNL as these may be influenced slightly by transducer selection.

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Noise Exposure and Background Noise Tolerance in Listeners With Normal Audiograms

Camera

Tufts

Skoe

2019

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Tolerance for background noise when listening to speech has been found to vary greatly between individuals, despite clinically similar audiograms. Recent work suggests that listeners at risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) self-report greater annoyance of background sounds compared with listeners at lower risk for NIHL. To date, the relationship between noise exposure levels and background noise tolerance has not been studied using objective noise exposure level measurements and quantitative (i.e., not questionnaire-based) background noise tolerance measures. Method Acceptable Noise Level (ANL; Nabelek, Tucker, & Letowski, 1991 ) scores and week-long noise dosimetry measurements were obtained for 56 normal-hearing college students, 22 of whom were routinely exposed to levels of noise that exceed recommended exposure limits (higher risk). The remaining 34 participants did not exceed recommended exposure limits (lower risk). Results The lower risk group's average daily noise dose was 26%, whereas the higher risk group accrued an average daily noise dose of 461%. The lower risk group was found to be more tolerant of background noise than the higher risk group, with mean ANL scores of 3.1 dB and 5.4 dB signal-to-noise ratio, respectively. A small but statistically significant relationship between ANL and noise dose was found, indicating that higher levels of noise exposure were associated with lower background noise tolerance. Conclusions Results suggest that young adults at higher risk for NIHL based on objective noise exposure data have a slightly lower tolerance for background noise when listening to speech. These findings open avenues for future work on background noise tolerance in more diverse noise-exposed populations.

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Comparing Loudness Tolerance and Acceptable Noise Level in Listeners With Hearing Loss

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

Efficacy of Tailor-Made Notched Music Training Versus Tinnitus Retraining Therapy in Adults With Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Efficacy of Tailor-Made Notched Music Training Versus Tinnitus Retraining Therapy in Adults With Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

The Impact of Transducer Selection on the Acceptable Noise Level

Noise Exposure and Background Noise Tolerance in Listeners With Normal Audiograms

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