Clinical Trials Logo

Clinical Trial Summary

The primary complaint of individuals with hearing loss is difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise. Although hearing aids help individuals understand speech in background noise better, there is a high rate of hearing aid rejection in part due to continued difficulty understanding speech in complex listening situations. The results of this study may demonstrate that speech-in-noise test results can be a predictor of hearing aid success. The results of this study also may lead to further studies that can evaluate interventions to improve hearing aid success for individuals who are identified as unsuccessful hearing aid users.


Clinical Trial Description

As numerous studies have reported, the most common complaint that individuals with sensorineural hearing loss have about their hearing is that they can hear speech but they cannot understand speech, especially in background noise. For this type of hearing loss and most other types of hearing losses, hearing aids are the intervention of choice. The majority of individuals who receive hearing aids are successful hearing-aid users in that both subjectively and objectively they function better with their hearing aids than without hearing aids. Other individuals are unsuccessful hearing-aid users because for a variety of reasons their perception is that the hearing aids do not enable them to function better. Two studies (Popelka et al., 1998; Kockchin, 2000) indicate that about 25% of individuals who receive hearing aids can be considered unsuccessful hearing-aid users. If potentially (un)successful hearing-aid users can be identified, then audiologic rehabilitation programs can be designed for use with potentially successful hearing-aid users and more extensive audiologic rehabilitation programs can be designed for use with those individuals who are potentially unsuccessful hearing-aid users.

Data from a recent series of studies by N b lek and her colleagues (1991, 2004) indicate that successful and unsuccessful hearing-aids users can be predicted based on their performance on a subjective speech-in-noise task in which a most comfortable listening level is established for a travelogue story and the level of a multitalker babble is established that permits following the travelogue. The difference between these two levels is the acceptable noise level (ANL). Based on the ANL data, N b lek et al. (2006) report with 85% confidence those individuals who are successful hearing-aid users and those who are unsuccessful hearing-aid users. One premise of this proposal is that the ANL is in fact an estimate in the subjective realm of the signal-to-noise (S/N) at which the listener is comfortable listening to a speech signal in background noise.

Recently in our laboratory the words-in-noise (WIN) test was developed that involves the presentation of words in multitalker babble at signal-to-babble (S/B) ratios from 24- to 0-dB in 4-dB decrements. The 50% point on the function is calculated with the Spearman-K rber equation. This objective instrument provides an average 8-dB separation in recognition performances between listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss. The 50% points for the listeners with normal hearing are 0- and 6-dB S/B, whereas the 50% points for the listeners with hearing loss are 8- and 16-dB S/B. Thus, not only is the WIN very sensitive to the effects of hearing loss on speech understanding, but the WIN provides a range of performances by listeners with hearing loss.

The proposed study is designed to answer the following two key questions:

1. What is the relationship between ANL performance (subjective paradigm) and WIN performance (objective paradigm) in both unaided and aided conditions?

2. How well do the ANL and WIN scores predict subjective hearing-aid outcome domains (use, satisfaction, benefit, and global)?

In addition, the study design enables multiple comparisons to be made among several of the study variables and among many traditional variables such as age, pure-tone thresholds, and word-recognition abilities in quiet.

Future goals beyond this proposal involve the development (1) of systematic protocols to select amplification devices or specific features for amplification based on WIN or ANL performance, and (2) of audiologic rehabilitation programs that can be administered quickly and effectively (depending on the category of hearing-aid success that was determined from performances on the WIN or ANL) to veterans who are receiving hearing aids. ;


Study Design

Observational Model: Cohort, Time Perspective: Prospective


Related Conditions & MeSH terms


NCT number NCT00371449
Study type Observational
Source VA Office of Research and Development
Contact
Status Completed
Phase N/A
Start date November 2006
Completion date June 2009

See also
  Status Clinical Trial Phase
Recruiting NCT04696835 - fNIRS in Pediatric Hearing Aids N/A
Completed NCT03662256 - Reducing Childhood Hearing Loss in Rural Alaska Through a Preschool Screening and Referral Process Using Mobile Health and Telemedicine N/A
Completed NCT04602780 - Evaluating the Revised WORQ in CI Users
Completed NCT03723161 - Evaluation of the Ponto Bone Anchored Hearing System in a Pediatric Atresia Population
Completed NCT05086809 - Investigation of an Updated Bone-anchored Sound Processor N/A
Active, not recruiting NCT03548779 - North Carolina Genomic Evaluation by Next-generation Exome Sequencing, 2 N/A
Completed NCT03428841 - Audiovisual Assessment After Dural Puncture During Epidural Placement in Obstetric Patients N/A
Completed NCT04559282 - Home Test of New Sound Processor N/A
Enrolling by invitation NCT03345654 - Individually-guided Hearing Aid Fitting
Completed NCT06016335 - MRI-based Synthetic CT Images of the Head and Neck N/A
Completed NCT05165121 - Comparison of Hearing Aid Fitting Outcomes Between Self-fit and Professional Fit for MDHearing Smart Hearing Aids N/A
Recruiting NCT05533840 - Establishment and Application of a New Imaging System for Otology Based on Ultra-high Resolution CT
Completed NCT04622059 - AUditive Direct In-utero Observation (AUDIO): Prenatal Testing of Congenital Hypoacusis N/A
Terminated NCT02294812 - Effects of Cognitive Training on Speech Perception N/A
Recruiting NCT02558478 - Identification of New Genes Implicated in Rare Neurosensory Diseases by Whole Exome Sequencing N/A
Withdrawn NCT02740322 - Validating the Hum Test N/A
Completed NCT01963104 - Community-Based Kiosks for Hearing Screening and Education N/A
Completed NCT01857661 - The Influence of the Sound Generator Combined With Conventional Amplification for Tinnitus Control: Blind Randomized Clinical Trial N/A
Completed NCT01892007 - Evaluation of Cogmed Working Memory Training for Adult Hearing Aid Users N/A
Withdrawn NCT01223638 - The Prevalence of Hearing Loss Among Children With Congenital Hypothyroidism N/A