Investigating the Effects of Four Auditory Profiles on Speech Recognition, Overall Quality, and Noise Annoyance With Simulated Hearing-Aid Processing Strategies.

The hearing-aid processing was simulated in a lab with headphones, not tested with wearable devices in daily life. Eleven of 60 participants could not be assigned to a profile and were excluded, and subjective analyses used 44 or 42 participants, so some profile groups were small. The auditory profiles were derived from unaided speech-in-noise tests in stationary noise with a different sentence test, which may not match the aided canteen-like test used here. Only one background noise scenario was used, so findings may not apply to rooms with multiple talkers or different noise types. All participants received NAL-NL2 gain, so a different fitting rationale might change the profile differences. Speech scores in the side condition with HA4 and HA5 had strong floor effects and were excluded. This limits interpretation of those settings when speech came from the side. Participants had no history of neurological or language disorders and had used hearing aids for at least 9 months, so it says little about new users or people with other conditions.

Funder named: Innovationsfonden. The supplied text does not give a further conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not conclude that auditory profiles should be used to choose hearing-aid settings in clinic. The profiles differed in aided speech-in-noise thresholds, but the simulated hearing-aid strategies showed few profile-specific differences, and the study did not test wearable devices or daily-life listening.