Comparison of calculated, measured and self-assessed intelligibility of speech in noise for hearing-aid users.
The Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) was used along with paired-comparison judgements and speech recognition scores to compare the speech intelligibility provided by two hearing-aid frequency responses in two different background noises. The purpose was to validate an SII-based procedure. Test subjects were 26 hearing-aid users representing a wide range of hearing loss configurations. One hearing-aid setting was in close agreement with the NAL-R prescription, whereas the other setting was achieved by reducing the high-frequency gain by about 10 dB compared to NAL-R. There were good overall agreements between results of the three methods. Average speech recognition scores were about 4 percentage points higher for the NAL-R frequency response, which also was subjectively judged as significantly better in terms of speech intelligibility. The SII based procedure was found to be suitable for comparing hearing-aid characteristics within subjects.
Magnusson
L
L
Department of Audiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. lennart.magnusson@audiology.gu.se
Karlsson
M
M
Ringdahl
A
A
Israelsson
B
B
D000368:Aged; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception