Predictors of aided speech recognition, with and without frequency compression, in older adults

Abstract

Objective: The aim was to investigate whether cognitive and/or audiological measures predict aided speech recognition, both with and without frequency compression (FC). Design: Participants wore hearing aids, with and without FC for a total of 12 weeks (six weeks in each signal processing condition, ABA design). Performance on a sentence-in-noise recognition test was assessed at the end of each six-week period. Audiological (severity of high frequency hearing loss, presence of dead regions) and cognitive (reading span and trail making test scores) measures were obtained and assessed as predictors of sentence-in-noise recognition with and without FC enabled. Study sample: Twelve experienced hearing-aid users (aged 65–84 years old) with moderate-to-severe high-frequency hearing loss took part in the study. Results: The results suggest that both auditory and cognitive factors can be predictive of sentence-in-noise recognition with conventional amplification. However, only auditory factors were significantly correlated with the degree of benefit obtained from FC. Conclusions: The strongest predictor of aided speech recognition, both with and without FC, was high frequency hearing loss. Cognitive performance was also a predictor of benefit from conventional amplification, but not of additional benefit from the use of FC.

Key Words::

• Hearing aids
• frequency compression
• speech perception
• cognition
• sensorineural hearing loss
• predictors of benefit
• older adults

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by an ESRC CASE PhD studentship in conjunction with Phonak AG. The authors are grateful to the participants for donating their time, and to Catherine Siciliano, Kathryn Hopkins, Richard Baker, and Michael Akeroyd for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The authors would also like to thank Kathryn Lewis and staff at the Audiology department at Withington Community Hospital, Manchester for help recruiting participants, Keith Wilbraham for technical assistance, Anna Pepler for clinical assistance, and Andrea Simpson for her help in getting the project started.

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