title: Evaluation of a second-order directional microphone hearing aid: II. Self-report outcomes.
abstract: This clinical trial was undertaken to evaluate the subjective benefit obtained from hearing aids employing automatic switching second-order adaptive directional microphone technology, used in conjunction with digital noise reduction, as compared to a fixed directional microphone or omnidirectional microphone response with the same digital noise reduction. Data were collected for 49 participants across two sites. Both new and experienced hearing aid users were fit bilaterally with behind-the-ear hearing aids using the NAL-NL1 (National Acoustics Laboratory-Nonlinear version 1) prescriptive method with manufacturer default settings for various signal processing (e.g., noise reduction, compression parameters, etc.). During ten days of hearing aid use, participants responded to daily journal questions. Subjective ratings for each of the three hearing aid responses (omnidirectional, automatic-adaptive directional, and automatic-fixed directional) were similar. Overall preference for a microphone condition was equally distributed between no preference, omnidirectional, and automatic adaptive and/or fixed directional.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. palmercv@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bentler
authors.forename: H Gustav
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Mueller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000523:psychology; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome