The efficacy of a digital hearing aid with a directional microphone was examined in a school-aged population. Twenty children (9 with a mild-to-moderately-severe hearing loss and 11 with a moderate-to-severe hearing loss) between 7 1/2 and 13 2/3 years of age wore the study hearing aids binaurally for 30 days prior to the evaluation. The testing protocol included speech recognition tests using ...

For at least the past sixty years, the predominant type of electronic circuit present in hearing aids has been a single-channel amplifier designed to be linear over most of its operating range with its maximum output limited via peak clipping (Berger, 1984). Although this is presently still the case (Hawkins and Naidoo, 1993), it is apparent that hearing aids designed to be nonlinear over most ...

Self-reported outcome on hearing disability and handicap as well as overall health-related quality of life were measured after hearing-aid Wtting in a large-scale clinical population. Fitting was performed according to two diVerent procedures in a double-blind study design. We used a comparative procedure based on optimizing speech intelligibility scores and a strictly implemented Wtting formul...

OBJECTIVE With broadening candidacy criteria for cochlear implantation, a greater number of pediatric candidates have usable residual hearing in their nonimplanted ears. This population potentially stands to benefit from continued use of conventional amplification in their nonimplanted ears. The purposes of this investigation were to evaluate whether children with residual hearing in their noni...

BACKGROUND Research suggests that for individuals with significant low-frequency hearing, implantation of a short-electrode cochlear implant may provide benefits of improved speech perception abilities. Because this strategy combines acoustic and electrical hearing within the same ear while at the same time preserving low-frequency residual acoustic hearing in both ears, localization abilities ...

UNLABELLED According to the IBGE, Brazil had 21 million elderly persons in 2008. OBJECTIVE To study the effects of speech therapy - fitting of hearing aids - on the quality of life of elderly persons and restriction of participation according to sex and age. MATERIAL AND METHOD 50 elderly subjects, 23 females and 27 males, were allocated to Group 1 and Group 2, and were assessed with questi...

AIM The objectives of this study were to describe preconceptions and expectations of older adults about getting hearing aids and to explore the influence of hearing loss (HL), hearing aid experience, gender, age, and marital status on these preconceptions and expectations. METHODS A total of 174 participants aged above 65 years were randomly selected from a waiting list for hearing aid fittin...

Some hearing-impaired persons with hearing aids complain of listening difficulty under reverberation. No method, however, is currently available for hearing aid fitting that permits evaluation of hearing difficulty caused by reverberations. In this study, we produced speech materials with a reverberation time of 2.02 s that mimicked a reverberant environment (a classroom). Speech materials with...

UNLABELLED The treatment of sensorineural hearing loss is based on hearing aids, also known as individual sound amplification devices. The hearing aids purchased by the Brazilian Government, aiming at fulfilling public policies, are based on dedicated components, which bring about benefits, but also render them expensive and may impair repair services after manufacture's warranty expires. AIM...

PURPOSE To summarize existing data on the interactions of cognitive function and hearing technology in older adults. METHOD A narrative review was used to summarize previous data for the short-term interactions of cognition and hearing technology on measured outcomes. For long-term outcomes, typically for 3-24 months of hearing aid use, a computerized database search was conducted. RESULTS ...