title: Development and preliminary verification of a Mandarin-based hearing-aid fitting strategy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to design and to verify a new hearing-aid fitting strategy (Aescu HRL-1) based on the acoustic features of Mandarin. The subjective and objective outcomes were compared to those fitted with NAL-NL1 (National Acoustic Laboratory Non-Linear, version1) in Mandarin-speaking hearing-aid users.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen subjects with sensorineural hearing loss participated in this preliminary study. Each subject wore a pair of four-channel hearing aids fitted with the Aescu HRL-1 and NAL-NL1 prescriptions alternatively for 1 month. Objective and subjective tests including the Mandarin Monosyllable Recognition Test (MMRT), Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (MHINT), International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA), and a sound-quality questionnaire were used to evaluate the performance of the two prescriptions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean MMRT scores were 79.9% and 81.1% for NAL-NL1 and Aescu HRL-1 respectively. They are not statistically different. The corresponding MHINT signal-to-noise ratios were 0.87 and 0.85 dB, also, no significant difference was found between these two strategies. However, in subjective questionnaires, overall, the sound-quality and IOI-HA scores were higher for Aescu HRL-1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The speech recognition performance based on Aescu HRL-1 is as good as that of NAL-NL1 for Mandarin-speaking hearing-aid users. Moreover, the subjects generally responded that Aescu HRL-1 provides a more natural, richer, and better sound quality than does NAL-NL1.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Information Technology Innovation, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ying-Hui
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Tien-Chen
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Pei-Chun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wan-Ting
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Shuenn-Tsong
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008144:Loudness Perception / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013016:Sound; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult