Improved Speech Recognition in Adults With Conductive or Mixed Hearing Loss Using a Direct-to-Consumer Bone-Conduction Device: A Multiple Methods Intervention Study.
Thomas Hampton, Mark Fletcher, Alan Sanderson and 3 others
PMID 40663651WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with conductive or mixed hearing loss improved word recognition by a median of 10 percentage points using a low-cost bone-conduction headset.
Benefit was greatest for those with larger air-bone gaps and mild underlying sensorineural loss. Participants rated ease of use highly.
Key findings
01The median change in speech recognition score across all participants was 10 percentage points.
02Improvement in speech recognition was positively associated with the size of the air-bone gap.
03Participants with mild bone conduction hearing loss showed statistically significant improvement, whereas those with moderate or severe loss did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted in a quiet environment with clear speech input, so results may not translate to noisy real-world settings. Participants could likely feel the vibration of the bone-conduction device, making true blinding to the aided condition impossible. The sample size was small (n=33), particularly in the severe hearing loss subgroup (n=4). The median age of participants was 70 years, so results may not apply to younger patients with different etiologies of hearing loss. The device was evaluated only during a brief interaction without participants adjusting settings or using it for daily activities. The qualitative analysis did not use frequentist methods for triangulation or bias mitigation.
Declared interests
One author is supported by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship and a TWJ Thesis grant. The device manufacturers (Raspberry Pi) and funders (Wellcome Trust) had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or manuscript preparation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this device will help all patients with hearing loss. Benefit was significant only in those with mild underlying sensorineural loss and large air-bone gaps. Patients with severe sensorineural hearing loss or anatomical abnormalities like aural atresia are unlikely to benefit.