title: The occlusion effect in unilateral versus bilateral hearing aids.
abstract: The benefit of bilateral hearing aids is well documented, but many hearing-aid users still wear only one aid. It is plausible that the occlusion effect is part of the reason for some hearing-aid users not wearing both hearing aids. In this study we quantified the subjective occlusion effect by asking ten experienced users of bilateral hearing aids and a reference group of ten normal-hearing individuals to rate the naturalness of their own voice while reading a text sample aloud. The subjective occlusion effect was evaluated in the unilateral versus bilateral condition for a variety of vent designs in earmolds and in a custom hearing aid. The subjective occlusion effect was significantly higher for bilateral hearing aids with all vent designs with the exception of a non-occluding eartip option. The subjective occlusion effect was reduced with the more open vent designs in both the unilateral and bilateral conditions. Assuming that the occlusion effect is a barrier to bilateral hearing aid use, these results indicate that open-hearing-aid fittings can help promote the use of two aids.
authors.affiliation: GN Resound as, Denmark. cjespersen@gnresound.dk
authors.forename: Charlotte Thunberg
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Jespersen
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Groth
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kiessling
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.forename: Ole Dyrlund
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Jensen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004424:Ear Canal / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000009:adverse effects; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis