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Abstract
In a group of 20 patients with monaural hearing loss varying from a Pure Tone Average (PTA) of 20 dB hearing level to residual hearing, the Directional Threshold of Intelligibility (DTI) was measured both with and without background noise, and with and without hearing aid.
Without background noise, the DTI with hearing aid was found to be better than the DTI without hearing aid in 2 of the 4 positions of the signal loudspeaker. the difference was statistically significant. with background noise, the DTI with hearing aid was found to be significantly better than without hearing aid in 6 of the 16 combinations of signal and noise loudspeakers. for all of the 20 experimental listening conditions we found that the DTI was better with hearing aid than without in 11 of the 20 patients. for the 16 experimental listening conditions with background noise we found a significantly better DTI in 9 of the 20 patients, in 2 patients we found a poorer DTI with hearing aid than without.
It seems important to evaluate the effect of hearing aid treatment of monaurally hard-of-hearing patients after a sufficiently long trial period.