Hearing Loss
Conditions
Keywords
hearing aid, self-fitting
Brief summary
Fifty adults with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss will be fit with hearing amplification using two adjustment techniques. For the audiologist fitting technique, a licensed audiologist will adjust the hearing device using the standard of care procedures which include adjustment and verification of output to match prescribed targets (NAL-NL2) and subsequent fine tuning to optimize adjustments based on participant feedback. The second technique is user-adjustment of the device consisting of adjustment to overall level, high-frequency boost, and low-frequency cut by the participant while listening to speech. A cross-over design will be used in which half the participants are initially fit using the audiologist technique and the other half are initially fit using the user self-adjustment technique. Following a seven-day field trial, participants will return to the lab and the aids will be reset use the other technique. Participants will be blinded to the condition. During each seven-day field trial, users will have access to a volume control, Following the end of the two trials, participants will return to the lab for outcome assessment.
Interventions
DEVICEHearing aid fitting technique- audiologist or user-adjusted
See information under 'arm' description
Sponsors
University of California, San Diego
San Diego State University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Outcomes assessors and participants will not be aware of which hearing setting (audiologist adjusted vs. self-adjusted) they are wearing
Intervention model description
Repeated-measures crossover design
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
50 Years to 90 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* bilateral hearing loss with a minimum of 40 dB HL thresholds at 2000 Hz * English speaking
Exclusion criteria
* Score less than 21 on the MoCa (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) * Evidence of conductive or retrocochlear pathology
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Real-ear aided output | two weeks | aided output (in dB SPL) measured across frequencies in the ears of the participants |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Computerized Assisted Speech Perception Assessment (CASPA) | two weeks | Speech recognition test; phoneme recognition score as percentage correct |
| Device Oriented Scale of Improvement (DOSO) | two weeks | Questionnaire (25 items) to assess benefit from hearing aids on a 7 pt scale; a larger number is associated with better outcome |
Outcome results
None listed