Optimizing Hearing Aid Fitting for Older Adults

优化老年人的助听器验配

• 批准号: 6876714
• 负责人: ROBYN Masterton COX
• 金额: $ 21.8万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-04-01 至 2008-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6876714
• 关键词: clinical research; evaluation /testing; hearing aids; hearing disorders; human old age (65+); human subject; neural information processing; noise; psychoacoustics; sound frequency; speech recognition; technology /technique development

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to increase the effectiveness of hearing aids for older adults. Despite substantial improvements in hearing aid technology, the hearing aid take-up rate and the satisfaction with fitted hearing aids has not improved in the last decade. This is partly due to a failure by the research community to produce and disseminate updated fitting methods that facilitate the ability of practitioners to exploit insights derived from basic research. The two experiments in this proposal address this issue. These experiments will produce evidence-based recommendations about amplification needs that will assist clinicians to utilize new knowledge to capitalize on the potential of existing new technologies. The first experiment explores application of laboratory research on effectiveness of high frequency gain in real-world hearing aid fittings. Recent studies have suggested that, for some individuals with high frequency hearing loss, high frequency amplification is actually detrimental for speech understanding. There is a need to verify these observations in real world settings and to devise a practical method to validly identify patients for whom high-frequency gain is contraindicated. The study assesses the prevalence of such patients, and evaluates two new procedures that have been developed to prospectively select these individuals. The two procedures are used to identify experimental and control groups comprising 20 pairs of subjects. Each subject is fitted with a hearing aid that allows comparison of two amounts of high-frequency gain. Subjects undergo laboratory testing and a field trial to determine which high-frequency gain prescription is better. Results show the extent of the problem, and whether either of the two new procedures yields accurate prediction of optimal high-frequency gain. The second experiment explores the indications for bilateral (binaural) hearing aid fittings for older adults with bilateral hearing loss. Post-fit usage patterns and self-reports indicate that about 20-30% of bilaterally fitted individuals actually benefit more from one hearing aid than two. It is not clear why some patients prefer one hearing aid over two, or which patients will fall into this category. In this study, logistic regression is used to develop a model in which binaural summation, binaural integration, binaural interference, and attitudes towards hearing aids and hearing loss are combined to predict which individuals will ultimately benefit more from one hearing aid than two. For these individuals, resources presently allocated to hearing aid purchase would be used more effectively for alternate rehabilitation methods. Outcomes of 100 bilateral hearing aid fittings will be evaluated.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目标是提高老年人助听器的有效性。尽管助听器技术取得了显着进步，但过去十年助听器的使用率和对助听器的满意度并没有提高。部分原因是研究界未能制定和传播更新的拟合方法，以促进从业者利用基础研究得出的见解的能力。本提案中的两个实验解决了这个问题。这些实验将产生关于放大需求的基于证据的建议，这将帮助临床医生利用新知识来充分利用现有新技术的潜力。 第一个实验探讨了实验室研究在现实助听器验配中高频增益有效性的应用。最近的研究表明，对于一些高频听力损失的人来说，高频放大实际上不利于语音理解。需要在现实世界中验证这些观察结果，并设计一种实用的方法来有效识别高频增益禁忌的患者。该研究评估了此类患者的患病率，并评估了为前瞻性选择这些患者而开发的两种新程序。这两种程序用于识别由 20 对受试者组成的实验组和对照组。每个受试者都配备了助听器，可以比较两个高频增益。受试者接受实验室测试和现场试验，以确定哪种高频增益处方更好。结果显示了问题的严重程度，以及两种新程序是否能够准确预测最佳高频增益。 第二个实验探讨了双耳听力损失老年人的双耳助听器验配适应症。验配后使用模式和自我报告表明，大约 20-30% 的双边验配者实际上从一台助听器中受益比从两台助听器中受益更多。目前尚不清楚为什么有些患者更喜欢一个助听器而不是两个，也不清楚哪些患者会属于这一类。在这项研究中，逻辑回归被用来开发一个模型，其中双耳求和、双耳整合、双耳干扰以及对助听器和听力损失的态度相结合，以预测哪些人最终会从一个助听器而不是两个助听器中受益更多。对于这些人来说，目前分配给购买助听器的资源将更有效地用于替代康复方法。将评估 100 例双侧助听器验配的结果。