Development and preliminary verification of a Mandarin-based hearing-aid fitting strategy.

• Main Authors: Ying-Hui Lai, Tien-Chen Liu, Pei-Chun Li, Wan-Ting Shih, Shuenn-Tsong Young
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3835675?pdf=render

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. DESIGN: 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.