Relations Between Self-Reported Daily-Life Fatigue, Hearing Status, and Pupil Dilation During a Speech Perception in Noise Task.

The study included only 19 participants with hearing impairment and 27 normally hearing participants, and the authors said the groups were too small to make reliable correlations within each group. It measured associations at one time, so it cannot show that hearing loss causes fatigue or that fatigue causes smaller pupil dilation. The speech test was done only at the level needed for 50% correct sentences, not at other intelligibility levels where pupil effort may behave differently. During data collection, the noise level was changed partway through, affecting 19 normally hearing participants and 8 participants with hearing impairment; the authors concluded this did not affect the main outcomes. Participants with hearing loss were tested without hearing aids, but the sounds were amplified using a fitting rule that may not fully restore high-frequency audibility. The study did not include self-rated listening effort or objective task-induced fatigue, so it cannot compare daily-life fatigue with fatigue produced by the test itself.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is tagged as supported by non-U.S. government research.

Do not conclude that hearing loss causes daily-life fatigue. The study found no significant difference in self-reported fatigue between adults with hearing loss and normal-hearing adults, and no association between fatigue and hearing acuity. The pupil-dilation findings are associations from a laboratory task and do not prove cause.