Objective and Subjective Benefit of Direct-to-Consumer Hearing Devices in Middle-Aged Adults.
Objective and Subjective Benefit of Direct-to-Consumer Hearing Devices in Middle-Aged Adults.
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DOI：
10.1044/2022_aja-21-00171
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发表时间：
2022-04
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
K. Helfer;S. Mamo;Michael Clauss;Lincoln Dunn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Helfer;S. Mamo;Michael Clauss;Lincoln Dunn
目的
本项目旨在评估几种直接面向消费者的听力设备为中年成年人提供的主观和客观益处。本研究的主要目标是确定当使用者在一系列声学条件下聆听时，这类设备能在多大程度上产生益处，而非比较不同设备之间的益处。
方法
参与者（平均年龄 = 58岁，n = 40）在使用和不使用四种直接面向消费者的设备中的一种的情况下完成一项言语感知任务。刺激物在两种不同的信噪比和两个目标水平下，与三种类型的掩蔽声（稳态噪声、调制噪声和竞争说话者）一起呈现。参与者还对使用和不使用设备完成任务所需的努力程度进行了评级，并完成了一份关于设备舒适度和感知有效性的简短问卷。
结果
客观益处的量（就言语识别准确率而言）在四种产品之间存在差异，四种设备中有两种产生了具有中等到较大效应量的统计学显著益处。使用所有四种设备都注意到自评听力努力程度有所降低，具有中等效应量。听力损失程度（4个频率的纯音平均值）与主观或客观益处的量均无显著关联。对任务后问卷的回答表明，许多参与者愿意在“现实世界”中使用这些或类似的设备。
结论
我们的研究结果支持这样的概念：直接面向消费者的听力设备有可能改善中年成年人的客观和/或主观言语识别能力，至少在符合规定目标时是如此。在这些参与者样本中，从这些设备中获得的益处与听力损失程度无关。
PURPOSE The purpose of this project was to assess subjective and objective benefit provided by several direct-to-consumer hearing devices for middle-aged adults. The primary goal of this study was to determine the extent to which this type of device can yield benefit when users are listening in a range of acoustic conditions, rather than to compare benefit among devices. METHOD Participants (M age = 58 years, n = 40) completed a speech perception task with and without one of four direct-to-consumer devices. Stimuli were presented with three types of maskers (steady-state noise, modulated noise, and competing talkers) at two different signal-to-noise ratios and two target levels. Participants also rated the effort required to complete the task with and without the devices and completed a short questionnaire about device comfort and perceived effectiveness. RESULTS The amount of objective benefit (in terms of speech recognition accuracy) varied among the four products, with two of the four devices yielding statistically significant benefit with medium-to-large effect sizes. Reduction in self-rated listening effort was noted from the use of all four devices, with a moderate effect size. Degree of hearing loss (4-frequency pure-tone average) was not significantly associated with the amount of either subjective or objective benefit. Responses to the posttask questionnaire indicated that many of the participants would be willing to use these or similar devices in the "real world." CONCLUSIONS Our findings support the concept that direct-to-consumer hearing devices have the potential to improve objective and/or subjective speech recognition in middle-aged adults, at least when fit to prescriptive targets. Benefit from these devices was not related to degree of hearing loss in this sample of participants.