Relationships Between Subjective and Objective Measures of Listening Accuracy and Effort in an Online Speech-in-Noise Study.
Ian M Wiggins, Jemaine E Stacey, Graham Naylor and 1 others
PMID 40117131WHAT IT FOUND
Listening effort ratings distinguish people with hearing loss from those with normal hearing across most noise levels, whereas speech accuracy scores only separate them in very noisy conditions.
Effort measures capture everyday listening difficulty better than accuracy alone.
Key findings
01People with hearing loss reported nearly twice the daily listening effort on average compared to those with normal hearing, though individual scores overlapped substantially.
02Speech intelligibility scores (both objective and subjective) only showed a clear difference between hearing loss and normal hearing groups at the noisiest conditions (0 dB SNR and below).
03Subjective listening effort ratings were higher for people with hearing loss across almost all noise levels, including conditions where speech accuracy was similar between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was conducted online, so equipment quality, volume settings, and background noise varied between participants. Hearing status was based on self-report, not clinical audiometry, so some 'normal hearing' participants might have had undiagnosed loss. The sample size was modest (67 total) and the groups were not age-matched (hearing loss group was significantly older). Verbal response time data were missing for 16 participants due to recording issues.
Declared interests
Funded by the William Demant Foundation (a hearing aid manufacturer). Authors received support from the NIHR Nottingham and Manchester Biomedical Research Centres.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that patients with hearing loss will perform worse on standard speech-in-noise tests in moderately noisy environments. The study found that accuracy scores often overlap between groups until noise levels become very high. Patients may report significant listening effort and fatigue despite 'normal' or near-normal test scores in these conditions.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →