International Journal of Audiology最新文献

Objective: To explore the perspectives of patients and hearing care providers (HCPs) about an adult remote hearing-aid delivery service implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Service evaluation via surveys. The patient survey measured satisfaction with the service, perceived hearing-aid handling skills, and preferences for future services. The HCP survey explored the impact of teleaudiology on outcomes compared to in-person care and factors important for successful teleaudiology.

Study sample: 378 patients and 14 HCPs.

Results: Patients were highly satisfied with the service and self-reported good hearing-aid handling skills. However, 2 in 3 patients said they would prefer a future hearing-aid fitting to be in-person rather than remote. HCPs thought teleaudiology had positive impacts on convenience, accessibility, and flexibility, but negative impacts on communication, rapport, and the quality of care. HCPs considered computer literacy and individual preferences to be important for successful remote care; the age of the patient was considered less important.

Conclusions: Patients were generally highly satisfied with the service and for 1 in 3 it was their preferred mode of future hearing-aid fitting. Future services should be aware that a one-size-fits-all approach will not satisfy all patients and that teleaudiology should be offered on the basis of individual preference.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a dual-task Mandarin Reading Span Test (RST) to assess verbal working memory related to speech perception in noise.

Design: The test material was developed taking into account psycholinguistic factors (i.e. sentence structure, number of syllables, word familiarity, and sentences plausibility), to achieve good test reliability and face validity. The relationship between the 28-sentence Mandarin RST and speech perception in noise was confirmed using three speech perception in noise measures containing varying levels of contextual and linguistic information.

Study sample: The study comprised 42 young adults with normal hearing and 56 older adult who were hearing aid users with moderate to severe hearing loss.

Results: In older hearing aid users, the 28-sentence RST showed significant correlation with speech reception thresholds as measured by three Mandarin sentence in noise tests (r_s or r = -.681 to -.419) but not with the 2-digit sequence Digit-in-Noise Test.

Conclusion: The newly developed dual-task Mandarin RST, constructed with careful psycholinguistic consideration, demonstrates a significant relationship with sentence perception in noise. This suggests that the Mandarin RST could serve as a measure of verbal working memory.

Objective: This systematic review aims to examine the current literature on help-seeking, hearing device uptake, and hearing health outcomes in individuals with subclinical hearing loss.

Design: Systematic review.

Study sample: Searches of three databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE (PubMed), and Scopus) yielded nine studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was determined using the National Institute of Health quality assessment tool. The studies' level of evidence was determined according to the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.

Results: All included studies involved adult participants. Three studies examined help-seeking. Self-reported difficulty, poor speech-in-noise performance, and emotional responses to the hearing difficulty were identified as factors influencing help-seeking. Six studies examined the use of hearing devices as an intervention, including hearing aids (n = 4), hearables (n = 1), and FM systems (n = 1). Using hearing devices improved self-perceived hearing difficulty, speech-in-noise understanding, and motivation to address hearing difficulties. No studies focused on hearing device uptake. The quality assessment indicated limited methodological rigour across the studies, with varying levels of evidence.

Conclusions: Current evidence supports the use of hearing devices as an intervention for individuals with subclinical hearing loss. However, more research is essential, particularly focusing on help-seeking, diagnosis, treatment, and long-term outcomes using well-controlled study designs.

Objective: To determine if a stricter criterion for paediatric hearing aid fitting for proximity of fit-to-target of <3 dB root-mean-square (RMS) error produces better audibility and outcomes compared to the current <5 dB criterion, and to examine the relationship between aided audibility and RMS error by degree of hearing loss.

Design: We evaluated the influence of unaided hearing level on the relationship between RMS error and aided audibility. We assessed the effect of RMS error category (<3, 3-5, >5 dB) on aided audibility, speech recognition, expressive vocabulary, and morphosyntax.

Study sample: The study included 2314 hearing aid verification measurements from 307 children with hearing aids.

Results: Children who met a <3 dB criterion had higher aided audibility than children who met no criterion (>5 dB error). Results showed no differences in speech recognition or vocabulary by error category, but children with <3 dB error demonstrated better morphosyntax than children with 3-5 and >5 dB RMS error.

Conclusions: Fittings that are close to prescriptive targets provide a more positive outcome for children with hearing aids. Using probe microphone measures to adjust hearing aids to within 3 dB may benefit language abilities in children.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of hearing health education programs aimed at preventing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), of recreational and occupational origin, by means of a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Design: The search strategy was carried out in on five electronic databases, as well as referrals from experts. The risk of bias was judged, and the random effects meta-analysis was performed. The certainty of the evidence was assessed.

Study sample: Effectiveness studies that used educational intervention in hearing health and prevention of NIHL were included.

Results: 42 studies were included. The Dangerous Decibels program was the only one that could be quantitatively analysed and showed improvement in the post-intervention period of up to one week [SMD = 0.60; CI95% = 0.38-0.82; I2 = 92.5%) and after eight weeks [SMD = 0.45; CI95% = 0.26-0.63; I2 = 81.6%) compared to the baseline. The certainty of evidence was judged as very low.

Conclusions: The Dangerous Decibels program is effective after eight weeks of intervention. The other programs cannot be quantified. They still present uncertainty about their effectiveness. The level of certainty is still low for this assessment.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the main reasons for hearing aid uptake from a user perspective and recommendations to others with hearing difficulties.

Design: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Responses to a single open-ended question were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Study sample: Participants (n = 642) included adult hearing aid users sampled from the Hearing Tracker website community and Lexie Hearing user databases in the United States.

Results: Participants had a mean age of 65.4 years (13.7 SD) and included 61.8% males, 37.7% females, 0.3% non-binary, and 0.2% preferred not to say. Reasons for hearing aid uptake were categorised into three domains (personal impact, social difficulties, and auditory difficulties), containing 11 main categories and 48 sub-categories. User recommendations to others with hearing difficulties constituted eight main categories (timely help, trial period, support, affordability, technology, direct-to-consumer hearing aids, adjustments, and advocacy) and 32 sub-categories.

Conclusions: The decision to take up hearing aids included intrinsic factors like readiness to change and extrinsic factors such as the availability of finances. The most frequent recommendation to others was not to delay seeking hearing help and to get hearing aids. Our findings may support strategies to facilitate behaviour change for improved hearing aid uptake.

Objective: To examine help-seeker satisfaction with the first communication of a tinnitus diagnosis by a healthcare provider, whether help-seekers undertook treatment and how they rated this treatment.

Design: A survey design assessed tinnitus characteristics and distress, health status, help-seeking, diagnosis communication, treatment and patient satisfaction.

Study sample: A self-selected cohort and a population-based cohort.

Results: Satisfaction scores were examined against demographic, clinical factors, and type of healthcare provider. A total of 281 adults participated (median age 61.6, IQR = 10.8 years), 52.3% sought help for tinnitus and 22.4% received treatment. The most frequently seen healthcare providers were general practitioners (34.0%), audiologists (29.3%) and ear, nose and throat specialists (25.9%). About two-thirds (64.1%) of help-seekers were unsatisfied with the first communication of a tinnitus diagnosis they received, and 56.5% rated their first tinnitus treatment as poor. Help-seekers were significantly more satisfied with audiologists than other providers regarding the communication of the first tinnitus diagnosis. Higher tinnitus distress scores were significantly associated with lower patient satisfaction with communication of first tinnitus diagnosis. No other factors were associated with patient satisfaction.

Conclusion: There are significant communication barriers along the tinnitus clinical pathway. Identifying and addressing these barriers could improve patient satisfaction.

Objective: To investigate older and younger adults' perceptions of older and younger adults who wear hearing aids.

Design: Participants completed two Implicit Association Tests: One with images of older adults (OA-IAT) and one with images of younger adults (YA-IAT), either wearing or not wearing hearing aids. Participants also rated age, attractiveness, and intelligence of younger and older adults pictured with or without a hearing aid.

Study sample: Thirty older adults (M age = 70 years, SD = 4.38) and 30 younger adults (M age = 23 years, SD = 3.01) who reported not having hearing aids or a diagnosed hearing impairment.

Results: For both IATs, older and younger participants responded faster and more accurately when images of individuals wearing hearing aids were paired with negative words in comparison to positive words. Photo ratings did not vary in relation to the presence or absence of hearing aids for either age group.

Conclusion: Although the photo rating tasks indicate neutral explicit attitudes towards individuals who wear hearing aids, our interpretation of the IAT results indicates that younger and older adults may hold negative implicit attitudes towards both older and younger hearing aid users.

Objective: To explore if experience with hearing aid (HA) amplification affects speech-evoked cortical potentials reflecting comprehension abilities.

Design: N400 and late positive complex (LPC) responses as well as behavioural response times to congruent and incongruent digit triplets were measured. The digits were presented against stationary speech-shaped noise 10 dB above individually measured speech recognition thresholds. Stimulus presentation was either acoustic (digits 1-3) or first visual (digits 1-2) and then acoustic (digit 3).

Study sample: Three groups of older participants (N = 3 × 15) with (1) pure-tone average hearing thresholds <25 dB HL from 500-4000 Hz, (2) mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) but no prior HA experience, and (3) mild-to-moderate SNHL and >2 years of HA experience. Groups 2-3 were fitted with test devices in accordance with clinical gain targets.

Results: No group differences were found in the electrophysiological data. N400 amplitudes were larger and LPC latencies shorter with acoustic presentation. For group 1, behavioural response times were shorter with visual-then-acoustic presentation.

Conclusion: When speech audibility is ensured, comprehension-related electrophysiological responses appear intact in individuals with mild-to-moderate SNHL, regardless of prior experience with amplified sound. Further research into the effects of audibility versus acclimatisation-related neurophysiological changes is warranted.

Objective: Modelling the head-shadow effect compensation and speech recognition outcomes, we aimed to study the benefits of a bone conduction device (BCD) during the headband trial for single-sided deafened (SSD) subjects.

Design: This study is based on a database of individual patient measurements, fitting parameters, and acoustic BCD properties retrospectively measured on a skull simulator or from existing literature. The sensation levels of the Bone-Conduction and Air-Conduction sound paths were compared, modelling three spatial conditions with speech in quiet. We calculated the phoneme score using the Speech Intelligibility Index for the three conditions in quiet and seven in noise.

Study sample: Eighty-five SSD adults fitted with BCD during headband trial.

Results: According to our model, most subjects did not achieve a full head-shadow effect compensation with the signal at the BCD side and in front. The modelled speech recognition in the quiet conditions did not improve with the BCD on the headband. In noise, we found a slight improvement in some specific conditions and minimal worsening in others.

Conclusions: Based on an audibility model, this study challenges the fundamentals of a BCD headband trial in SSD subjects. Patients should be counselled regarding the potential outcome and alternative approaches.