The Danish hearing in noise test

Abstract

Abstract

Objective: A Danish version of the hearing in noise test (HINT) has been developed and evaluated in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. The speech material originated from Nielsen & Dau (2009) where a sentence-based intelligibility equalization method was presented. Design: In the present study, the speech material was evaluated for naturalness and a subset of sentences selected. The new sentence lists were validated, and after three weeks retested. An additional experiment investigated how recollection of sentences affected the listeners’ performance. Study sample: 16 NH and 16 HI listeners participated in the validation and retest. Twelve HI listeners participated in the experiment on recollection. Results: The average speech recognition threshold in noise (SRT_N) for the NH listeners was −2.52 dB, with an overall standard deviation of 0.87 dB. The within-subject standard deviation was similar for the NH and the HI listeners. In the retest, the SRT_N decreased by 0.4 dB in both groups. Conclusions: The Danish HINT consists of 10 test lists and three practice lists each containing 20 sentences. The validation results are comparable to those of other versions of HINT. The test seems equally reliable for NH and HI listeners. After three weeks, reliable results can be obtained when sentence lists are reused with the same listeners.

Sumario

Objectivo: Se ha desarrollado una versión danesa del HINT en sujetos normoyentes (NH) y en hipoacúsicos (HI). Se presentó el material del habla originado por Nielsen & Dau (2009) en donde el método de ecualización fue basado en la inteligibilidad de una oración. Diseño: Se evaluó la naturalidad del material del habla y un subgrupo seleccionado de oraciones. Las nuevas listas de oraciones se validaron y después de tres semanas se re-examinaron. Un experimento adicional investigó cómo afectaba el desempeño de los oyentes la recolección de las oraciones. Muestra: 16 NH y 16 HI participaron en la validación y la re-examinación. Doce HI participaron en la recolección del experimento. Resultados: El umbral promedio del reconocimiento del habla en ruido (SRT_N) para los participantes NH fue -2.52 dB con un desviación estándar general de 0.87 dB. La desviación estándar intra-sujeto fue similar para los participantes NH y los HI. En la re-examinación el SRTN disminuyó en 0.4dB en ambos grupos. Conclusiones: El HINT danés consta de 10 listas y tres listas de práctica; cada una contiene 20 oraciones. La validación de resultados es comparable a aquella de otra versión de HINT. La prueba parece ser igualmente confiable para personas NH que para HI. Después de tres semanas los SRTN disminuyeron muy ligeramente cuando las listas de oraciones fueron usadas en los mismos oyentes.

Key Words::

• Speech intelligibility
• Speech perception
• HINT
• Danish

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted in collaboration with the Danish hearing aid companies Oticon, GN Resound, and Widex. We wish to thank the following colleagues for their contributions and involvement: Lise Bruun Hansen and Niels Søgaard Jensen (Oticon); Anja Kofoed Pedersen and Ellen Raben Pedersen (Widex); Charlotte T. Jespersen, Jenny Nesgaard, and Lotte Hernvig (GN Resound). We would also like to thank Julie Neel Weile for running the tests with the many HI listeners. Finally, thank you to all the listeners who took time to participate. The present work was partly funded by the Oticon Foundation.

Note

Audio files of the Danish HINT and the written sentence lists can be found at http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14992027.2010.524254.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.