Evaluation of the NAL Dynamic Conversations Test in older listeners with hearing loss.
Virginia Best, Gitte Keidser, Katrina Freeston and 1 others
PMID 28826285WHAT IT FOUND
Older listeners with poorer cognitive abilities did worse on a conversational comprehension test than on a sentence test.
Hearing aid benefit also changed with noise level.
Key findings
01Hearing loss was the strongest predictor of unaided performance on the comprehension test.
02Poorer cognitive abilities predicted relatively worse performance on the comprehension test than on the sentence test.
03Aided scores were better at 2.5 dB and worse at -5 dB than unaided scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The NAL-DCT was tested in a laboratory simulated room, not in real conversations. The sample was 41 older adults with bilateral symmetric sensorineural hearing loss from 12 to 65 dB HL, so it does not speak to younger adults, unilateral loss, conductive or mixed loss, or more severe loss. Seven participants were excluded from the threshold analysis because their performance functions were too flat or nonmonotonic. Aided comparisons used different noise levels for different participants, with 19, 14, or 8 participants at -5, 2.5, or 10 dB, so noise level was not tested within the same people. Hearing aids were master hearing aids fitted to NAL-NL2, not the participants' own hearing aids. Listening effort was subjective, and the authors note it may reflect perceived performance rather than mental exertion.
Declared interests
The supplied metadata lists U.S. National Institutes of Health grant support and non-U.S. government research support. The article text provided does not include an author conflict-of-interest or funding declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this test proves hearing aids help older listeners understand conversations. The aided benefit depended on the tested noise level, and at -5 dB aided scores were worse than unaided scores.