Speech-in-Noise and Quality-of-Life Measures in School-Aged Children With Normal Hearing and With Unilateral Hearing Loss

Abstract

Objectives: 1) Measure sentence recognition in co-located and spatially separated target and masker configurations in school-aged children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and with normal hearing (NH). 2) Compare self-reported hearing-related quality of life (QoL) scores in school-aged children with UHL and NH. Design: Listeners were school-aged children (6-12 yrs) with permanent UHL (n = 41) or NH (n = 35) and adults with NH (n = 23). Sentence reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured using HINT-C sentences in quiet and in the presence of 2-talker child babble or a speech-shaped noise masker in target/masker spatial configurations: 0/0, 0/−60, 0/+60, or 0/±60 degrees azimuth. Maskers were presented at a fixed level of 55 dBA, while the level of the target sentences varied adaptively to estimate the SRT. Hearing-related QoL was measured using the Hearing Environments and Reflection on Quality of Life (HEAR-QL-26) questionnaire for child subjects. Results: As a group, subjects with unaided UHL had higher (poorer) SRTs than age-matched peers with NH in all listening conditions. Effects of age, masker type, and spatial configuration of target and masker signals were found. Spatial release from masking was significantly reduced in conditions where the masker was directed toward UHL subjects' normal-hearing ear. Hearingrelated QoL scores were significantly poorer in subjects with UHL compared to those with NH. Degree of UHL, as measured by four-frequency pure-tone average (PTA), was significantly correlated with SRTs only in the 2 conditions where the masker was directed towards subjects' normal-hearing ear, although the unaided Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) at 65 dB SPL was significantly correlated with SRTs in 4 conditions, some of which directed the masker to the impaired ear or both ears. Neither PTA nor unaided SII was correlated with QoL scores.

Auditory Comprehension in School-Aged Children With Normal Hearing and With Unilateral Hearing Loss

“…However, the same experimental hardware and software were used at all three testing sites. For a detailed description of the testing facilities and experimental equipment, the reader is referred to Griffin et al (2019). Both acoustical and behavioral measurements reported in that study verified the effective equivalence of the different test booths.…”

“…All children (n = 76, aged 6-12 years) who were subjects in the sentence recognition study reported in Griffin et al (2019) participated in the current comprehension task later in the same 2-hr experimental test session. Forty-one of these children had UHL and 35 had NH.…”

“…PTA = four-frequency pure-tone average; SII = speech intelligibility index; IEP = Individualized Education Plan; F = female; R = right; S = sensorineural; A = acquired; L = left; C = congenital; M = male; MIX = mixed; ADD = attention-deficit disorder; ADHD = attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; EVA = enlarged vestibular aqueduct; NH = normal hearing. a SRT in Front/Impaired & Good refers to a subject's sentence reception threshold (SRT) previously obtained in Griffin et al (2019), which approximates the signal-to-noise ratio needed to achieve 50% sentence understanding when listening to Hearing in Noise Test for Children sentences at 0°azimuth in the presence of spatially separated two-talker babble at +60°and −60°azimuth, which presented masking toward both their impaired and good ears-the same masker and target/masker spatial configuration used in the current study.…”

“…Studies have typically measured subjects' speech perception using whole-word stimuli in the presence of noise maskers (e.g., Bess et al, 1986;Bovo et al, 1988). Only a few studies have investigated abilities using sentence-level stimuli and/or real speech masking (Corbin, Buss, & Leibold, 2017;Griffin, Poissant, & Freyman, 2019;Reeder et al, 2015). To the authors' knowledge, only one study (Lewis, Valente, & Spalding, 2015) has attempted to understand how UHL affects children's higher-order comprehension skills.…”

Associations between perceived environmental pollution and health-related quality of life in a Chinese adult population

“…There was full of literature that addressed the intersection of quality of life and noise pollution worldwide. A number of measurement tools were adopted to reflect the relationship between noise and HRQOL, such as WHOQOL-BREF [32], Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire [33], SF-36 [34], and Hearing Environments and Reflection on Quality of Life questionnaire [35]. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study shows that individuals with high noise sensitivity (NS) tend to have degraded HRQOL compared to individuals with low NS [36].…”