Abstract
BackgroundImprovement of speech perception in quiet is an important goal of hearing aid provision. In practice, results are highly variable. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between type and extent of hearing loss (audiogram type), maximum word recognition score, and aided speech perception.Materials and methodsPure tone and speech audiometric data of 740 ears in 370 patients were reviewed. All subjects visited our hearing center for hearing aid evaluation between 2012 and 2017. The maximum word recognition score (WRSmax) and the monosyllabic speech recognition score with hearing aids, WRS65(HA) were analyzed for 10 different standard audiogram types.ResultsThe WRS65(HA) with hearing aids for different degrees of hearing loss is, within error boundaries, comparable to previous investigations and shows a difference of 10–20 percentage points to the WRSmax. This difference tends to be larger for flat and moderately sloping audiograms compared to steep-sloping audiograms. The ratio WRS65(HA)/WRSmax can be interpreted as an efficiency factor for hearing aid provision, since it relates speech recognition with hearing aids to the maximally achievable information carrying capacity of the hearing impaired.ConclusionThe expectation regarding hearing aid provision has to be adjusted according to maximum word recognition score, the derived quality measures, degree of hearing loss, and audiogram type.
Highlights
Hearing loss is one of the five most frequent disorders with a substantial impact on quality of life [17]
The upper part (a) shows the results of the measurement with headphones at 65 dB sound pressure level (SPL), while the middle part (b) shows the values measured in free field with hearing aids at 65 dB SPL
The data are presented for each audiogram type separately, withblackboxplots for N-type and blue box plots for S-type hearing loss
Summary
Hearing loss is one of the five most frequent disorders with a substantial impact on quality of life [17]. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between type and extent of hearing loss (audiogram type), maximum word recognition score, and aided speech perception. The WRS65(HA) with hearing aids for different degrees of hearing loss is, within error boundaries, comparable to previous investigations and shows a difference of 10–20 percentage points to the WRSmax. This difference tends to be larger for flat and moderately sloping audiograms compared to steep-sloping audiograms. The expectation regarding hearing aid provision has to be adjusted according to maximum word recognition score, the derived quality measures, degree of hearing loss, and audiogram type
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