TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting
T2 - Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation
AU - Sanchez-Lopez, Raul
AU - Fereczkowski, Michal
AU - Santurette, Sébastien
AU - Dau, Torsten
AU - Neher, Tobias
PY - 2021/1/16
Y1 - 2021/1/16
N2 - Background-The clinical characterization of hearing deficits for hearing-aid fitting purposes is typically based on the pure-tone audiogram only. In a previous study, a group of hearing-impaired listeners completed a comprehensive test battery that was designed to tap into different dimensions of hearing abilities. A data-driven analysis of the data yielded four clinically relevant patient sub-populations or "auditory profiles". The purpose of the current study was to propose and pilot-test profile-based hearing-aid settings in order to explore their potential for providing more targeted hearing-aid treatment. Methods-Four candidate hearing-aid settings were developed and evaluated by a subset of the participants tested previously. The evaluation consisted of multi-comparison preference ratings that were carried out in realistic sound scenarios. Results-Listeners belonging to the different auditory profiles showed different patterns of preference for the tested hearing-aid settings that were largely consistent with the expectations. Conclusions-The results of this pilot evaluation support further investigations into stratified, profile-based hearing-aid fitting with wearable hearing aids.
AB - Background-The clinical characterization of hearing deficits for hearing-aid fitting purposes is typically based on the pure-tone audiogram only. In a previous study, a group of hearing-impaired listeners completed a comprehensive test battery that was designed to tap into different dimensions of hearing abilities. A data-driven analysis of the data yielded four clinically relevant patient sub-populations or "auditory profiles". The purpose of the current study was to propose and pilot-test profile-based hearing-aid settings in order to explore their potential for providing more targeted hearing-aid treatment. Methods-Four candidate hearing-aid settings were developed and evaluated by a subset of the participants tested previously. The evaluation consisted of multi-comparison preference ratings that were carried out in realistic sound scenarios. Results-Listeners belonging to the different auditory profiles showed different patterns of preference for the tested hearing-aid settings that were largely consistent with the expectations. Conclusions-The results of this pilot evaluation support further investigations into stratified, profile-based hearing-aid fitting with wearable hearing aids.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.14.20036459
U2 - 10.3390/audiolres11010002
DO - 10.3390/audiolres11010002
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33467060
VL - 11
SP - 10
EP - 21
JO - Audiology Research
JF - Audiology Research
SN - 2039-4330
IS - 1
ER -