Objective and Subjective Benefit of Direct-to-Consumer Hearing Devices in Middle-Aged Adults

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to assess subjective and objective benefit provided by several direct-to-consumer hearing devices for middle-aged adults. The primary goal of this study was to determine the extent to which this type of device can yield benefit when users are listening in a range of acoustic conditions, rather than to compare benefit among devices. Method: Participants ( M age = 58 years, n = 40) completed a speech perception task with and without one of four direct-to-consumer devices. Stimuli were presented with three types of maskers (steady-state noise, modulated noise, and competing talkers) at two different signal-to-noise ratios and two target levels. Participants also rated the effort required to complete the task with and without the devices and completed a short questionnaire about device comfort and perceived effectiveness. Results: The amount of objective benefit (in terms of speech recognition accuracy) varied among the four products, with two of the four devices yielding statistically significant benefit with medium-to-large effect sizes. Reduction in self-rated listening effort was noted from the use of all four devices, with a moderate effect size. Degree of hearing loss (4-frequency pure-tone average) was not significantly associated with the amount of either subjective or objective benefit. Responses to the posttask questionnaire indicated that many of the participants would be willing to use these or similar devices in the “real world.” Conclusions: Our findings support the concept that direct-to-consumer hearing devices have the potential to improve objective and/or subjective speech recognition in middle-aged adults, at least when fit to prescriptive targets. Benefit from these devices was not related to degree of hearing loss in this sample of participants.