Abstract
ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to design and to verify a new hearing-aid fitting strategy (Aescu HRL-1) based on the acoustic features of Mandarin. The subjective and objective outcomes were compared to those fitted with NAL-NL1 (National Acoustic Laboratory Non-Linear, version1) in Mandarin-speaking hearing-aid users. DesignFifteen subjects with sensorineural hearing loss participated in this preliminary study. Each subject wore a pair of four-channel hearing aids fitted with the Aescu HRL-1 and NAL-NL1 prescriptions alternatively for 1 month. Objective and subjective tests including the Mandarin Monosyllable Recognition Test (MMRT), Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (MHINT), International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA), and a sound-quality questionnaire were used to evaluate the performance of the two prescriptions. ResultsThe mean MMRT scores were 79.9% and 81.1% for NAL-NL1 and Aescu HRL-1 respectively. They are not statistically different. The corresponding MHINT signal-to-noise ratios were 0.87 and 0.85 dB, also, no significant difference was found between these two strategies. However, in subjective questionnaires, overall, the sound-quality and IOI-HA scores were higher for Aescu HRL-1. ConclusionsThe speech recognition performance based on Aescu HRL-1 is as good as that of NAL-NL1 for Mandarin-speaking hearing-aid users. Moreover, the subjects generally responded that Aescu HRL-1 provides a more natural, richer, and better sound quality than does NAL-NL1.
Highlights
Over the past 60 to 70 years, and especially during the most recent 35 years, there has been substantial research into the amplification needs of people with hearing impairments
Loudness normalization was rapidly employed for fitting multichannel wide-dynamicrange compression (WDRC) hearing aids, and it provides sufficient amplification to all frequencies so that the hearing-aid user perceives the full range of sounds at the same loudness as does a person with normal hearing (NH)
The phon is the unit of measurement for loudness level: 0 phon usually corresponds to the hearing threshold level of pure-tone audibility, and is called the pure-tone threshold (PTT), 100 phon is assumed to be near the discomfort level (DCL), and 65 phon is near to the most comfortable level (MCL) for the HI
Summary
Over the past 60 to 70 years, and especially during the most recent 35 years, there has been substantial research into the amplification needs of people with hearing impairments. Loudness normalization was rapidly employed for fitting multichannel WDRC hearing aids, and it provides sufficient amplification to all frequencies so that the hearing-aid user perceives the full range of sounds at the same loudness as does a person with normal hearing (NH). This is based on the reasonable assumption that HI subjects will be satisfied with and will benefit from having the loudness perception of NH listeners [6,7]. Keidser and Grant [6] argued that applying loudness normalization to hearing-aid fittings may result in both the speech and background noise being dominated by lowfrequency energy, and the hearing-aid user may suffer from the effect of upward spread of masking, which reduces the speech intelligibility, especially for low-level, highfrequency speech components
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