Relationship between laboratory measures of directional advantage and everyday success with directional microphone hearing aids.
The improvement in speech recognition in noise obtained with directional microphones compared to omnidirectional microphones is referred to as the directional advantage. Laboratory studies have revealed substantial differences in the magnitude of the directional advantage across hearing-impaired listeners. This investigation examined whether persons who were successful users of directional microphone hearing aids in everyday living tended to obtain a larger directional advantage in the test booth than persons who were unsuccessful users. Results revealed that the mean directional advantage did not differ significantly between patients who used the directional mode regularly and those who reported little or no benefit from directional microphones in daily living and, therefore, tended to leave their hearing aids set in the default omnidirectional mode. Success with directional microphone hearing aids in everyday living, therefore, cannot be reliably predicted by the magnitude of the directional advantage obtained in the clinic.
Cord
Mary T
MT
Army Audiology and Speech Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20307-5001, USA. mary.cord@amedd.army.mil
Surr
Rauna K
RK
Walden
Brian E
BE
Dyrlund
Ole
O
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004867:Equipment Design; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception