Abstract
AbstractHearing aid. AimTo compare the performance, benefit and satisfaction of users of ITE, CIC and BTE digital hearing aid with noise reduction and omnidirectional and directional microphones. Method34 users of hearing aid were evaluated by means of speech perception in noise tests and APHAB and IOI self assessment questionnaires. Prospective study. ResultsBetter results were obtained by users of ITE, CIC and directional hearing aids, however, no statistical significance was found between the groups. ConclusionDirectivity improved speech perception in noise and benefit in daily life situations.
Highlights
One of the greatest difficulties of the hearing impaired is to understand speech, especially in the presence of competitive noise[1,2,3,4]
Better results were obtained by users of ITE, CIC and directional hearing aids, no statistical significance was found between the groups
The goal of the present study was to compare speech perception performance in noisy environments, the benefit and satisfaction obtained by hearing impaired adult users of digital personal sound amplification devices (PSAD) with noise reduction algorithm, concerning the omnidirectional retroauricular device, the directional retroauricular, the ominidirectional intracanal and the omnidirectional microcanal devices
Summary
One of the greatest difficulties of the hearing impaired is to understand speech, especially in the presence of competitive noise[1,2,3,4]. The speech masking potential by competitive noise is expressed by the signal/noise (S/N) ratio, which is the difference between the intensity of a signal (speech) and the intensity of a competitive sound (noise), when presented simultaneously. The lower this association, the greater is the loss in speech understanding, both for normal hearing as well as for hard of hearing individuals[5]. Noise reduction algorithms aim at improving speech intelligibility, enhance comfort and reduce the hearing stress of PSAD users when in situations in which the S/N ratio is not favorable[8,9]. In most of the devices, the digital processor does the statistical analysis of the input signal, in each one of the PSAD frequency bands, in order to check to see which signal is predominant and to dampen band gain when noise is dominant[10]
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