Compensation effect of hearing aid on speech recognition in noise in patients with unilateral hearing loss

Abstract

Objective:The aim of this study was to investigate the speech recognition in noise in patients with unilateral hearing loss（UHL）, and explore the compensation effect of behind-the-ear（BTE） hearing aid on speech recognition in patients with varied degrees of UHL. Methods:Twenty-five participants with UHL were divided into two groups according to the degree of hearing loss: one group included subjects with unilateral moderate and moderately severe hearing loss and another one included subjects with unilateral severe and profound hearing loss. Fifteen healthy subjects with normal hearing were enrolled as the control group. The speech recognition thresholds and speech recognition scores at fixed signal noise ratio（SNR） in UHL participants with and without BTE hearing aid were tested in the sound field and compared with those in the control group. One-way ANOVA was used to examine the significance of the difference between UHL participants and control group, and paired t-test was used to analyze the compensation effect of hearing aid on speech recognition in noise in UHL participants. Results:The speech recognition thresholds were significantly higher in both UHL groups（P<0.01） compared with the control group, there was no significant difference between two UHL groups. And the speech recognition scores were significantly lower when the SNR was fixed（P<0.01）, and there were no significant differences between two UHL groups. When fitting BTE hearing aid, the speech recognition thresholds of the two groups significantly decreased（P<0.01）, and the speech recognition scores significantly improved（P<0.01）. Conclusion:Patients with above moderate UHL presented a significant decrease in performance of speech recognition in noise, and fitting BTE hearing aid on the affected ear had a positive compensation effect.