Different Degrees Of Hearing Loss Research Articles

Prevalence and associated factors of hearing loss among patients visiting St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Ethiopia

Background: Globally, 5% of the population is estimated to have disabling hearing loss (HL) requiring rehabilitation. By 2050, over 700 million people, or 1 in 10 people, will have HL. HL can happen during different lifetimes, but the prevalence of HL increases with age. Over 25% of people older than 60 are affected by disabling HL. WHO estimates that 1.1 billion young people are at risk of HL due to unsafe hearing practices. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of HL among patients visiting St. Paul’s Hospital and Millennium Medical College. Materials and Method: a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from August 1st to 30th, 2023. Data was collected from 352 participants using an interviewer-administered questionnaire by systematic sampling technique. Data was checked for completeness, cleared, entered into Epi-Info, and exported to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted, and the statistical association between variables was described using a p-value of < 0.05. Result: Of all study participants, 213 (60.5%) were male; the mean age and standard deviation were 35.36 + 17.03 years; and 199 (56.5%) had a different degree of hearing loss. Mild, moderate, severe, and profound hearing loss were recorded among 17%, 20%, 15%, and 4% of the respondents, respectively. Factors of hearing loss were age group, occupation, hearing difficulty, noisy work exposure, drinking alcohol, and Khat chewing. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of hearing loss was very high, and preventive interventions like improving knowledge on risk factors, ensuring a safe working environment, and avoiding chewing Khat for the at-risk population were recommended.

Comparisons of air-conduction hearing thresholds between manual and automated methods in a commercial audiometer.

To investigate the correlation of air-conduction thresholds between automated audiometry in a non-isolated environment and manual audiometry in participants with normal hearing and different degrees of hearing loss. Eighty-three participants aged 11-88 years old underwent automated pure-tone audiometry in a non-acoustically isolated environment, and the results were compared with those of manual pure-tone audiometry performed in a standard acoustically isolated booth, with the order of testing randomised. Six frequencies of 250, 500, 1,000, 2000, 4,000 and 8,000 Hz were tested. All 166 ears were completed and 996 valid hearing threshold data were obtained, with 28 data exceeding the 95% confidence interval in the Bland-Altman plot, accounting for 2.81% of all data. The means and standard deviations of the differences for the six frequencies from 250 to 8,000 Hz were, respectively, 0.63 ± 5.31, 0.69 ± 4.50, 0.45 ± 4.99, 0.3 ± 6.2, -0.15 ± 4.8, and 0.21 ± 4.97 dB. The correlation coefficients of the two test results for normal hearing, mild, moderate, severe and above hearing loss groups were 0.95, 0.92, 0.97, and 0.96, respectively. The correlation coefficient of the automated and manual audiometry thresholds for the age groups under 40 years, 40-60 years, and 60 years above, were 0.98, 0.97 and 0.97, respectively, with all being statistically significant (p < 0.01). The response time of the three age groups were 791 ± 181 ms, 900 ± 190 ms and 1,063 ± 332 ms, respectively, and there was a significant difference between the groups under 40 years and over 60 years. There was good consistency between automated pure-tone audiometry in a non-acoustically isolated environment and manual pure-tone audiometry in participants with different hearing levels and different age groups.

Novel Pathogenic Variants in the Gene Encoding Stereocilin (STRC) Causing Non-Syndromic Moderate Hearing Loss in Spanish and Argentinean Subjects.

Non-syndromic hearing impairment (NSHI) is a very heterogeneous genetic condition, involving over 130 genes. Mutations in GJB2, encoding connexin-26, are a major cause of NSHI (the DFNB1 type), but few other genes have significant epidemiological contributions. Mutations in the STRC gene result in the DFNB16 type of autosomal recessive NSHI, a common cause of moderate hearing loss. STRC is located in a tandem duplicated region that includes the STRCP1 pseudogene, and so it is prone to rearrangements causing structural variations. Firstly, we screened a cohort of 122 Spanish familial cases of non-DFNB1 NSHI with at least two affected siblings and unaffected parents, and with different degrees of hearing loss (mild to profound). Secondly, we screened a cohort of 64 Spanish sporadic non-DFNB1 cases, and a cohort of 35 Argentinean non-DFNB1 cases, all of them with moderate hearing loss. Amplification of marker D15S784, massively parallel DNA sequencing, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and long-range gene-specific PCR followed by Sanger sequencing were used to search and confirm single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and deletions involving STRC. Causative variants were found in 13 Spanish familial cases (10.7%), 5 Spanish simplex cases (7.8%) and 2 Argentinean cases (5.7%). In all, 34 deleted alleles and 6 SNVs, 5 of which are novel. All affected subjects had moderate hearing impairment. Our results further support this strong genotype-phenotype correlation and highlight the significant contribution of STRC mutations to moderate NSHI in the Spanish population.

Genotypic and Allelic Frequencies of GJB2 Variants and Features of Hearing Phenotypes in the Chinese Population of the Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort.

This study aimed to describe the distribution of the genotype and allele frequencies of GJB2 variants in the Chinese population of the Dongfeng Tongji cohort and to analyze the features of the hearing phenotype. We used data from 9910 participants in the Dongfeng Tongji cohort in 2013 and selected nine GJB2 variants. Pure tone audiometry was employed to measure hearing. Differences in genotype and allele frequencies were analyzed via chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. Of the 9910 participants, 5742 had hearing loss. The genotype frequency of the GJB2 variant c.109G>A was statistically significantly distributed between the normal and impaired hearing groups, but not for the variant c.235delC. A higher frequency of the c.109G>A homozygous genotype was found in the hearing loss group (0.5%) than in the normal hearing group (0.1%). Patients with c.109G>A and c.235delC homozygous mutations exhibited varying degrees of hearing loss, mainly presenting sloping and flat audiogram shapes. A significant difference was found in the genotype frequency of the GJB2 variant c.109G>A between the case and control groups, but not in that of the variant c.235delC. Different degrees of hearing loss and various audiogram shapes were observed in patients with c.109G>A and c.235delC homozygous mutations.

Benefits of Bimodal Stimulation to Speech Perception in Noise and Silence.

Introduction  Understanding all the benefits of bimodality with self-assessment questionnaires on the effect of hearing on quality of life is still necessary. Objective  To present whether bimodality still offers hearing benefits to the population who uses acoustic stimulation associated with electrical stimulation. Methods  The present study included 13 participants aged between 16 and 80 years old who were users of cochlear implants from Cochlear Corporation and hearing aids. All patients underwent the Hearing in Noise Test, and their visual analog scale score was obtained. Four-tone means were collected, and the participants answered the Speech, Spatial and Hearing Qualities questionnaire. Results  Bimodal users had an average sentence recognition rate of 76.0% in silence and 67.6% in fixed noise, and the signal-to-noise ratio in adaptive noise was +2.89dB. In addition, a lower level of difficulty was observed in the test using the visual analog scale. The domain with the highest average was auditory qualities (6.50), followed by spatial hearing (6.26) and hearing for speech (5.81). Individuals with an average between 50 and 70 dB of hearing level showed better sentence recognition in silence and noise. Conclusion  Bimodal stimulation showed benefits for users with different degrees of hearing loss; however, individuals who presented greater hearing residue had better performance in speech recognition with noise and in silence in addition to a good perception of hearing quality.

Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Short-term Hearing Aid Use in Patients with Different Degrees of Hearing Loss

The study presents evaluating the effectiveness of the hearing aid fitting process in the short-term use (7 days). The evaluation method consists of a survey based on the APHAB (Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit) questionnaire. Additional criteria such as a degree of hearing loss, number of hours and days of hearing aid use as well as the user’s experience were also taken into consideration. The outcomes of the benefit obtained from the hearing aid use in various listening environments for 109 hearing aid users are presented, including a degree of their hearing loss. The research study results show that it is possible to obtain relevant and reliable information helpful in assessing the effectiveness of the shortterm (7 days) hearing aid use. The overall percentage of subjects gaining a benefit when communicating in noise is the highest of all the analyzed and the lowest in the environment with reverberation. The statistical analysis performed confirms that in the listening environments in which conversation is held, a subjective indicator determined by averaging benefits for listening situations individually is statistically significant with respect to the degree of hearing loss. Statistically significant differences depending on the degree of hearing loss are also found separately for noisy as well as reverberant environments. However, it should be remembered that this study is limited to three types of hearing loss, i.e. mild, moderate and severe. The acceptance of unpleasant sounds gets the lowest rating. It has also been observed that in the initial period of hearing aid use, the perception of unpleasant sounds has a big influence on the evaluation of hearing improvement.

Hearing Loss Related to Gene Mutations in Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis

Introduction: Distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) is a disease that may develop either primarily or secondarily, resulting from urinary acidification defects in distal tubules. Hearing loss may accompany primary forms of dRTA. This study aims to determine the characteristics of hearing loss due to different gene mutations in patients with dRTA. Methods: Behavioral and electrophysiological audiological evaluations were performed after otolaryngology examination in 21 patients with clinically diagnosed dRTA. Radiological imaging of the inner ear (n = 9) was conducted and results of genetic analyses using next-generation sequencing method (n = 16) were included. Results: Twenty-one patients with dRTA from 20 unrelated families, aged between 8 months and 33 years (median = 12, interquartile range = 20), participated. All patients with ATP6V1B1 mutations (n = 9) had different degrees of hearing loss. There was one patient with hearing loss in patients with ATP6V0A4 mutations (n = 6). One patient with the WDR72 mutation had normal hearing. Large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS) was detected in 6 (67%) of 9 patients whose radiological evaluation results were available. Conclusions: LVAS is common in patients with dRTA and may influence the type and severity of hearing loss in these patients. The possibility of both congenital and late-onset and progressive hearing loss should be considered in dRTA patients. A regular audiological follow-up is essential for the early detection of a possible late-onset or progressive hearing loss in these patients.

[Analysis of clinical audiological characteristics in 868 children referred from maternal and child institutions].

Objective:To investigate the clinical audiological characteristics of children referred from maternal and child institutions and analyze the high risk factors of hearing loss, so as to provide scientific basis for further improvement of children's ear and hearing care. Methods:The subjects of this study were 868 children who were referred by maternal and child institutions in Beijing to the otology outpatient of Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University for hearing diagnosis. All subjects underwent acoustic immittance, auditory brainstem response, distortion products otoacoustic emission and other audiological tests. Children were divided into groups according to the age of diagnosis: 0-<3 months group（242 cases）, 3-<6 months group（328 cases）, 6-<12 months group（180 cases）, ≥12 months group（118 cases）, the results of hearing diagnosis, hearing loss degree and types, the relationship between high risk factors and hearing loss in each group were compared and analyzed. Results:The age of diagnosis of 868 children was（7.13±8.29） months. 488 cases with hearing loss accounted for 56.22% and 380 cases with normal hearing accounted for 43.78%. Proportion of different degree of hearing loss of 792 ears from high to low was as follows: mild, 366 ears（46.21%）; moderate, 214 ears（27.02%）; severe, 151 ears（19.07%）; profound, 61 ears（7.70%）. There were statistically significant differences in the proportion of different hearing loss degree among 0-<3 months group, 3-<6 months group, 6-<12 months group and ≥12 months group（P<0.001）. Pairwise comparison between groups showed that the proportion of mild hearing loss of 0-<3 months group was higher than that in the other three groups（P<0.05）, there was no significant difference of moderate hearing loss among all groups（P>0.05）, the proportion of severe hearing loss of ≥12 months group was higher than that of 0-<3 months group（P<0.05）. The proportion of profound hearing loss with 0-<3 months group was lower than the other three groups（P<0.05）. In 792 ears with hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss accounted for 67.42%, conductive hearing loss accounted for 20.71% and mixed hearing loss accounted for 11.87%. Among 98 cases with high risk factors for hearing loss, 58 cases（59.18%） were diagnosed with hearing loss. The incidence of hearing loss with high risk factors ranked from high to low was: craniofacial malformation（93.75%）, family history/congenital genetic syndrome（61.11%）, neonatal intensive care unit（NICU） hospitalization（46.43%） and others（20.00%）. Conclusion:Referrals from maternal and child institutions play an important role in the early detection of children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Children with craniofacial malformation, family history/congenital genetic syndrome, hospitalization history of NICU and other high risk factors have a high incidence of hearing loss and should be attached with great importance.

Consistency of two versions of hearing handicap inventory for elderly (HHIE and HHIE-S) with degree of hearing loss (HL)

Objective Using self-assessment methods to assess hearing handicap in the elderly can play an important role in understanding their disease status and taking action to improve it. Thus, the present study was performed to determine the consistency of two versions hearing handicap inventory for elderly, namely HHIE and HHIE-S, with the degree of hearing loss(HL). Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 110 elderly aged 60 years and above who referred to hearing clinics in province Khuzestan, Iran in 2019. In order to collect data, HHIE (including 25 questions) and HHIE-S (including 10 questions) were used. Data analysis was done using SPSS ver. 24. Independent sample t-test was used to compare HHIE and HHIE-S scores in terms of the degree of HL. Results The prevalence of mild, moderate and severe degrees of HL was 21.82%, 48.18% and 30.0%, respectively. The majority of the patients suffered from sensorineural hearing loss (77.28%). Comparison of HHIE/HHIE-S total score among patients with different degrees of HL showed statistically significant differences, and patients with a higher degree of hearing loss reported higher hearing handicaps. HHIE and HHIE-S total scores showed a positive large significant correlation (r = 0.815, p < 0.001).Our findings revealed a significant large positive association of the PTA with the total score of HHIE (r = 0.69, p < 0.001) and HHIE-S (r = 0.76, p < 0.001). Conclusions The large correlation between HHIE and HHIE-S measures observed in the current data supports that these two scales can be used interchangeably. These patient reported outcome inventories are congruent with hearing loss level, so they can be used as proper criteria for referring patients to audiologists in health system.

Study of Hearing loss in Diabetes Mellitus in Maharashtra Population

Background: High blood glucose levels are found to derange the vessels found in the stria vascularis and adjacentnerves thus it results into diminished ability to hear Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent the severity orpermanent hearing loss.Method: 40 adult patients aged between 30 to 50 years were studied by pure tone audiometry. By audiometry thedegree, type and configuration of hearing was assessed. Ear examination was done by otoscopy followed by puretone audiometry.Results: 20 (50%) patients had moderate, 12 (30%) had moderate severe, 8 (20%) severe hearing loss. The associatedclinical manifestations were 13 (32.5%) parasthesia, 10 (25%) skin disease, 8 (20%) visual problems, 9 (22.5%) lackof sleep.Conclusion: This pragmatic study with different degree of hearing loss will be helpful to ENT surgeon to assessthe severity and treat efficiently to prevent the complications of hearing loss.

A Study on Agility of School Children in India with Different Degree of Hearing Loss

Physical/motor fitness level of the hearing-impaired population have already attempted in previous studies where degree of hearing-loss of the subjects were not considered so far. Therefore, the aim of the study was to compare agility among children with different degree hearing-loss in India. Total of two-hundred-fifty-two (N=252, Boy=126 &amp; Girls=126) hearing-impaired children (aged 13-20 years) were selected as subjects. Degree of Hearing-loss was measured by audiometric technique and divided into six different groups’ viz. Profound, Severe, Moderately-Severe, Moderate, Mild and Normal with twenty one subjects in each group for each sex. Agility was measured through 4×10 meter shuttle run test. 2-way-ANOVA followed by Tukey's test was used as necessary statistics. The significance was tested at p &lt;.05 level. In agility, boys ware significantly better than the girls in all respect, when different hearing impaired groups were combined. Significant differences in agility among the different hearing impaired groups were observed except in few cases when both sexes were combined. No significant interaction between Sex and degree of hearing loss were observed. An increasing linear trend in agility was observed with decreasing degree of hearing Loss. Thus, an inverse relationship between agility and degree of hearing loss (dB HL) is observed.

Predictors of Early Language Outcomes in Children with Connexin 26 Hearing Loss across Three Countries.

GJB2-associated hearing loss (GJB2-HL) is the most common genetic cause of hearing loss in children. However, little is known about the clinical characteristics and early language outcomes in population-oriented samples including children with different degrees of hearing loss. Insight into these characteristics are relevant for the counselling of parents. Our sample consisted of 66 children at approximately 2 years of age (17–32 months) with bilateral hearing loss due to GJB2 from three population-based cohorts in Austria, Australia and the Netherlands. Predictors of early vocabulary, including demographic, audiological, genetic and intervention variables and the role of medical comorbidities and nonverbal cognition were examined. The vocabulary scores of children with GJB2-HL were approximately 0.7 standard deviations (SDs) below the norms of children with typical hearing. Age at access to family-centered early intervention and first-born position among siblings predicted language outcomes, whereas the degree of hearing loss and genetic subtype were not significantly correlated with expressive vocabulary. In children with GJB2-HL, early access to family-centered early intervention significantly affected language outcomes at the age of two.

[Application of ISO 1999:2013 (E) model in risk assessment of hearing loss caused by industrial noise].

To assess the risk of hearing loss caused by industrial noise exposure of welders and assemblers in a mechanical equipment manufacturing enterprise, and to explore the practical application and possible underestimation of ISO 1999∶2013(E) model. A total of 829 noise-exposed male workers from a mechanical equipment manufacturing enterprise were selected as study subjects. The questionnaire survey was administered, and individual noise exposure level(L_(Aeq.8 h)) and hearing loss level were measured. The risk assessment method of ISO 1999∶2013(E) was used to calculate the change of hearing threshold level and the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. By comparing the median of permanent hearing threshold shift caused by actual noise with the median of ISO1999 predicted value, the reason of the difference between the predicted value of ISO 1999∶2013(E) model and the actual value was analyzed. The L_(Aeq.8 h )was 89.5 dB(A), 77.4%(n=62)of the individual noise exposure levels exceeded 85 dB(A), and 24.6% of the participants(n=829) had different degrees of hearing loss. There was significant difference in hearing loss rate between welding and assembly positions(χ~2=10.07, P&lt;0.01). The risk of noise-induced high-frequency hearing loss of 90% welders was 11.2% at the age of 50, and 14.0% at the age of 60. The risk of noise-induced deafness of 90% welders was 4.3% at the age of 60. The risk of high noise-induced frequency hearing loss of 90% assemblers was at the range of 4.0%-9.0% at the age of 40, 20.8% at the age of 50, and 22.5% at the age of 60. The risk of noise-induced deafness of 90% assemblers was at the range of 1.4%-6.4% at the age of 50, and 9.0% at the age of 60. Compared with actual median of permanent hearing threshold shift, ISO1999∶2013(E) predictions underestimated the median of permanent hearing threshold shift at 10.7 dB. The noise hazards of welding and assembly positions in mechanical equipment manufacturing enterprises are high relatively. ISO1999∶2013(E) can be used to predict the risk of noise-induced hearing loss in workers, but attention should be paid to the risk underestimation of this model.

Prognostic Gene Expression Signature for Age-Related Hearing Loss.

BackgroundOur study aimed to determine the pathological mechanism of presbycusis at the molecular level, and determine potential biomarkers for the same.MethodsDifferentially expressed genes (DEGs) for presbycusis were obtained by analyzing the microarray data sets (GSE6045 and GSE49543) downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) pathway, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) were performed to analyze the biological functions, molecular pathways, autophagy-related molecular markers, and the immune microenvironment of the DEGs in presbycusis. Then the prognostic roles of the hub genes were analyzed and verified in vivo.ResultsIn the old mild hearing loss group (27.7 ± 3.4 months old), 27 down-regulated and 99 up-regulated genes were significantly differentially expressed compared with those in the young control group (3.5 ± 0.4 months old). In the old severe hearing loss group (30.6 ± 1.9 months old), 131 down-regulated and 89 up-regulated genes were significantly differentially expressed compared with those in the young control group. The results of the GO, GSEA, KEGG pathway, and immune infiltration analyses showed that the enrichment terms were mainly focused on immune response in mild presbycusis, and immune response and cell death in severe presbycusis. In the PPI network, autophagy-related genes ATG5, ATG7 showed the highest node scores in mild presbycusis; whereas MTOR, BECN1 showed the highest scores in severe presbycusis. In the GSE49543 data set, four genes (Ywhag, Mapre2, Fgf1, Acss2) were used to construct the prognostic model, and those four genes were significantly up-regulated in the rat model of presbycusis.ConclusionOur study is the first to report the difference in autophagy factors and immune microenvironment among different degrees of hearing loss in presbycusis. Furthermore, we provide the prognostic gene expression signature for age-related hearing loss, intending to develop preventative therapies.

A model of speech recognition for hearing-impaired listeners based on deep learning

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has made major progress based on deep machine learning, which motivated the use of deep neural networks (DNNs) as perception models and specifically to predict human speech recognition (HSR). This study investigates if a modeling approach based on a DNN that serves as phoneme classifier [Spille, Ewert, Kollmeier, and Meyer (2018). Comput. Speech Lang. 48, 51-66] can predict HSR for subjects with different degrees of hearing loss when listening to speech embedded in different complex noises. The eight noise signals range from simple stationary noise to a single competing talker and are added to matrix sentences, which are presented to 20 hearing-impaired (HI) listeners (categorized into three groups with different types of age-related hearing loss) to measure their speech recognition threshold (SRT), i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio with 50% word recognition rate. These are compared to responses obtained from the ASR-based model using degraded feature representations that take into account the individual hearing loss of the participants captured by a pure-tone audiogram. Additionally, SRTs obtained from eight normal-hearing (NH) listeners are analyzed. For NH subjects and three groups of HI listeners, the average SRT prediction error is below 2 dB, which is lower than the errors of the baseline models.

A Design Method for Gammachirp Filterbank for Loudness Compensation in Hearing Aids

Because the hearing impaired often experience different degrees of hearing loss along with the loss of frequencies, the loudness compensation algorithm in hearing aids decomposes the speech signal and compensates with different frequency bands based on their audiograms. However, the speech quality of the compensated signal is unsatisfactory because the traditional filterbanks fail to fully consider the characteristics of human hearing and personalized hearing loss. In this study, an effective design for the gammachirp filterbank for the loudness compensation algorithm was proposed to improve the speech quality of hearing aids. Firstly, a multichannel gammachirp filterbank was employed to decompose the signals. Then, the adjacent bands were merged into one channel, guided by the proposed combination method. After obtaining the personalized filterbank, each band conducted a loudness compensation to match the requirements of the audiograms. The excellent advantage of the gammachirp filterbank is that it can simulate the characteristics of the basilar membrane. Furthermore, the novel channel combination method considers the information from the audiograms and the relationship between frequency ranges and speech intelligibility. The experimental results showed that the proposed multichannel gammachirp filterbank achieves better speech signal decomposition and synthesis, and good performance can be gained with fewer channels. The loudness compensation algorithm based on the gammachirp filterbank effectively improves sentence intelligibility. The sentence recognition rate of the proposed method is higher than that of a system with a gammatone filterbank by approximately 13%.

[Diagnostic value of IT-MAIS scores by logistic regression and ROC curve in predicting the degree of hearing loss in infants and toddlers aged 0-36 months].

Objective:This study is inorder to compare the early prelingual auditory development trajectory of infants and toddlers with normal hearing and different degrees of hearing loss, and to explore the value of the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale （IT-MAIS） scores in the diagnosis of hearing loss severity in infants and toddlers aged 0-36 months. Methods:Eight hundred and forty-two cases of infant-toddler from March 2009 to March 2021 were selected as participants, including 231 cases with normal hearing and 611 cases with hearing loss. The IT-MAIS scores of participants with different degrees of hearing loss were fitted with nonlinear regression with age. By respectively constructing three logistic regression models of IT-MAIS total scores, perception scores, discrimination scores and evaluation age, the ROC curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy. Results:The IT-MAIS scores of children with mild, moderate, severe, and profound hearing loss participants changes with age are similar to the development of infants with normal hearing, and they all increase with age. And the more severe the hearing loss, the slower the growth rate, and the lower the peak value that can be reached. The logistic model constructed by combining IT-MAIS total score and evaluation age is the best to distinguish mild and above, moderate and above, severe and above, and profound hearing loss, whose AUC are 0.827, 0.889, 0.948, 0.946. The diagnostic efficiency is the best for infant-toddlers with profound hearing loss, with a sensitivity of 89.6% and a specificity of 88.4%. The more severe the hearing loss, the higher the discrimination accuracy of IT-MAIS and the better the diagnostic efficiency. Conclusion:The logistic model based on the IT-MAIS scale and the ROC curve method have a good efficiency in the diagnosis of hearing loss severity in infants and toddlers aged 0-36 months. When the child cannot cooperate with behavioral audiometry, the results of behavioral audiometry are unreliable, and there is no electrophysiological condition, the IT-MAIS scale is expected to evaluate the degree of infants' hearing loss as an auxiliary tool. It can understand the children's auditory function state more and provides a basis for the subsequent formulation of rehabilitation intervention strategies with certain clinical application value.

Visualization of Speech Perception Analysis via Phoneme Alignment: A Pilot Study.

Objective: Speech tests assess the ability of people with hearing loss to comprehend speech with a hearing aid or cochlear implant. The tests are usually at the word or sentence level. However, few tests analyze errors at the phoneme level. So, there is a need for an automated program to visualize in real time the accuracy of phonemes in these tests.Method: The program reads in stimulus-response pairs and obtains their phonemic representations from an open-source digital pronouncing dictionary. The stimulus phonemes are aligned with the response phonemes via a modification of the Levenshtein Minimum Edit Distance algorithm. Alignment is achieved via dynamic programming with modified costs based on phonological features for insertion, deletions and substitutions. The accuracy for each phoneme is based on the F1-score. Accuracy is visualized with respect to place and manner (consonants) or height (vowels). Confusion matrices for the phonemes are used in an information transfer analysis of ten phonological features. A histogram of the information transfer for the features over a frequency-like range is presented as a phonemegram.Results: The program was applied to two datasets. One consisted of test data at the sentence and word levels. Stimulus-response sentence pairs from six volunteers with different degrees of hearing loss and modes of amplification were analyzed. Four volunteers listened to sentences from a mobile auditory training app while two listened to sentences from a clinical speech test. Stimulus-response word pairs from three lists were also analyzed. The other dataset consisted of published stimulus-response pairs from experiments of 31 participants with cochlear implants listening to 400 Basic English Lexicon sentences via different talkers at four different SNR levels. In all cases, visualization was obtained in real time. Analysis of 12,400 actual and random pairs showed that the program was robust to the nature of the pairs.Conclusion: It is possible to automate the alignment of phonemes extracted from stimulus-response pairs from speech tests in real time. The alignment then makes it possible to visualize the accuracy of responses via phonological features in two ways. Such visualization of phoneme alignment and accuracy could aid clinicians and scientists.

Validity and Reliability of the Korean version of the Communication Scale for Older Adults

Purpose: Aural rehabilitation has been used to reduce communication difficulties related to hearing loss and minimize their consequence in everyday life. Aural rehabilitation includes diagnosis and identification of hearing loss, provision of appropriate assistive listening devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, auditory training, speechreading, and communication strategies training. Communication strategies refer to a course of action taken to facilitate conversation interaction or to correct communication problems. Compared to other components of aural rehabilitation, communication strategies have not been focused on as a significant evaluation tool in spite of their importance in daily life. This study aimed to develop a Korean version of the Communication Scale for Older Adults (K-CSOA) originally designed by Kaplan et al. (1997) to evaluate the changes in communication strategies and attitudes.Methods: The K-CSOA was composed of communication strategies and communication attitudes. The Communication strategies have three subcategories of Facilitative (10 items), Repair (15 items), and Preparatory strategies (16 items). The communication attitudes have also three subcategories of Own Attitude (19 items), Family’s Attitude (7 items), and Others Attitude (5 items). The validity and reliability of K-CSOA were obtained with total sixty subjects consisting of thirty subjects with normal hearing and thirty subjects with different degrees of hearing loss with mean age of 72 years old ranging from 60 years old to 85 years old.Results: The validity and reliability of the K-CSOA were measured using Pearson`s correlation coefficient, Cronbach Alpha coefficient, and independent t-tests. The correlation coefficients were high (.502-.984) between total means of K-CSOA and subcategories of K-CSOA. The internal consistency ranged from .802 to .930 for Communication Strategies and from .620 to .962 for Communication Attitudes. The test-retest correlation of the K-CSOA was .986 and .988 for Communication Strategies and Attitudes, respectively. The correlation coefficient was .784 between the K-CSOA and Korean Hearing Handicap for the Elderly (KHHIE). In addition, there were significant differences in Communication Strategies and Communication Attitudes between the normal hearing and hearing loss groups.Conclusion: These results indicate that K-CSOA can be used as a useful clinical tool providing in-depth information regarding communication strategies and attitudes in Korean elderly people.

OCENA UŻYTECZNOŚCI KLINICZNEJ TESTU IDENTYFIKACJI ZDAŃ W JĘZYKU KANNADA DLA OSÓB DOROSŁYCH

IntroductionA sentence identification test was developed by Geetha, Kumar, Manjula, and Pavan (2014) in the Kannada language. The test consists of 25 equivalent sentence lists with 10 sentences each. The present study aimed to assess the clinical utility of this test.Material and methodsAll sentences were presented to 5 groups of adults with 10 individuals in each group. Four groups, each of 10 individuals, had hearing loss: mild, moderate, moderately-severe, or severe. The fifth group had 40 individuals with normal hearing sensitivity. Standardized lists of 25 sentences were presented monaurally at the most comfortable level in a sound-treated double room. The number of correctly identified words was tabulated.ResultsThe mean identification scores decreased with increase in the degree of hearing loss, although the scores were comparable between the normal and mild group. A comparison of scores between each list within each group revealed that there was no significant difference between the lists for the scores obtained from the individuals with mild, moderate, moderately-severe, and severe degrees of hearing loss.ConclusionsThe developed sentence material is sensitive to differences in speech identification ability across different degrees of hearing loss. In addition, the mean number of correctly identified words do not vary across the lists in any of the four groups, suggesting equivalency across the standardized 25 lists in the clinical groups.