title: Own voice qualities (OVQ) in hearing-aid users: there is more than just occlusion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hearing-aid users' problems with their own voice caused by occlusion are well known. Conversely, it remains essentially undocumented whether hearing-aid users expected not to have occlusion-related problems experience own-voice issues.
  
  
  METHODS
  To investigate this topic, a dedicated Own Voice Qualities (OVQ) questionnaire was developed and used in two experiments with stratified samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the main experiment, the OVQ was administered to 169 hearing-aid users (most of whom were expected not to have occlusion-related problems) and to a control group of 56 normally-hearing people. In the follow-up experiment, the OVQ was used in a cross-over study where 43 hearing-aid users rated own voice for an open fitting and a small-vent earmould fitting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results from the main experiment show that hearing-aid users (without occlusion) have more problems than the normal-hearing controls on several dimensions of own voice. The magnitude of these differences was found to be generally larger than the differences observed between the open fitting and the small-vent fitting in the follow-up experiment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This suggests that own voice is a potentially important concern, even for hearing-aid users who are not expected to have occlusion-related problems.
authors.affiliation: Oticon, Research Centre Eriksholm, Denmark. slu@oticon.dk
authors.forename: Søren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laugesen
authors.forename: Niels Søgaard
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maas
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000523:psychology; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014833:Voice Quality