title: Effectiveness of a teleaudiology approach to hearing aid fitting.
abstract: This research was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of an online speech perception test (SPT) for the measurement of hearing and hearing aid fitting in comparison with conventional methods. Phase 1 was performed with 88 people to evaluate the SPT for the detection of significant hearing loss. The SPT had high sensitivity (94%) and high selectivity (98%). In Phase 2, phonetic stimulus-response matrices derived from the SPT results for 408 people were used to calculate "Infograms™." At every frequency, there was a highly significant correlation (p < 0.001) between hearing thresholds derived from the Infogram and conventional audiograms. In Phase 3, initial hearing aid fittings were derived from conventional audiograms and Infograms for two groups of hearing impaired people. Unaided and aided SPTs were used to measure the perceptual benefit of the aids for the two groups. The mean increases between unaided and aided SPT scores were 19.6%, and 22.2% (n = 517, 484; t = 2.2; p < 0.05) for hearing aids fitted using conventional audiograms and Infograms respectively. The research provided evidence that the SPT is a highly effective tool for the detection and measurement of hearing loss and hearing aid fitting. Use of the SPT reduces the costs and increases the effectiveness of hearing aid fitting, thereby enabling a sustainable teleaudiology business model.
authors.affiliation: Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Blamey and Saunders Hearing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Department of Medical Bionics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia peter.blamey@blameysaunders.com.au.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Blamey
authors.affiliation: Blamey and Saunders Hearing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeremy K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Blamey
authors.affiliation: Blamey and Saunders Hearing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saunders
mesh_terms: D001298:Audiology / Q000379:methods*; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000379:methods*; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000592:standards
keywords: Teleaudiology; hearing aid fitting