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Evaluation of Different Phone Solutions in CI and Hearing Aid Users and Bimodal Recipients

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Hearing Loss, Binaural
Hearing Loss, Monaural
Interventions
Device: standard telephone setting
Device: DECT
Device: EasyCall
Device: DuoPhone
Registration Number
NCT03036410
Lead Sponsor
Advanced Bionics AG
Brief Summary

Communication on telephone is challenging for people with hearing loss. For hearing aid users, for instance, the inventions for improving speech intelligibility on the phone range from an integrated tele coil and individual hearing programs to specially designed phone devices. No formal studies involving these devices have been carried out with CI users.

Thus, this comparative study includes hearing aid as well as CI and bimodal users to evaluate different hearing solutions for communication on telephone in terms of intelligibility and ease of use.

Detailed Description

Communication on telephone is challenging for people with hearing loss, due to a number of factors:

* The lack of visual cues (lip-reading),

* The lack of binaural abilities,

* The presence of (loud) background noise in a variety of listening situations,

* A modified speech signal due to reduced frequency bandwidth and

* Difficulties coupling the phone to the CI. For hearing aid users, for instance, the inventions for improving speech intelligibility on the phone range from an integrated tele coil and individual hearing programs to specially designed phone devices.

No formal studies involving these devices have been carried out with CI users.

Thus, this comparative study includes hearing aid as well as CI and bimodal users to evaluate the different hearing solutions for communication on telephone in terms of intelligibility and ease of use:

* Phonak DECT - cordless telephone for HA-, CI- users and bimodal users

* Phonak EasyCall - accessories for Bluetooth capable mobile telephones for HA-, CI- and bimodal users

* Phonak DuoPhone - streaming function, which provides the speech signal to both ears

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
25
Inclusion Criteria
  • Unilateral HA users with SRT of better (lower) than + 3 dB
  • Bilateral HA users with SRT of better (lower) than 0 dB
  • Unilateral CI users:

Unilaterally implanted with an Advanced Bionics CII, HiRes90k or Advantage implant

1-year acclimatization time after implantation at least 20% correct for a sentence test delivered with a SNR of + 10 dB, or a SRT of better (lower) than + 15 dB

  • Bimodal (CI + HA) users:

Unilaterally implanted with an Advanced Bionics CII, HiRes90k or Advantage implant CI side: at least 20% correct for a sentence test delivered with a SNR of + 10 dB, or a SRT of better (lower) than + 15 dB HA side: unaided threshold ≤ 80 dB at least for frequencies up to 500 Hz

  • All users:

Informed Consent as documented by signature Ability for speech understanding in the presence of competing noise without any assistance from lip-reading Ability to give subjective feedback in a certain listening situation First language: German or Swiss-German

Exclusion Criteria
  • All users:

Difficulties additional to hearing impairment that would interfere with the study procedures Acute inflammation or pain in head-/neck area Dizziness Age of participants < 18 years Age of participants > 80 years

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
unilateral hearing aid usersDECTwearing one hearing aid Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bimodal userDuoPhonewearing one hearing aid and one CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bimodal userEasyCallwearing one hearing aid and one CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bilateral hearing aid usersDECTwearing two hearing aids Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bilateral hearing aid usersEasyCallwearing two hearing aids Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bilateral hearing aid usersDuoPhonewearing two hearing aids Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
unilateral hearing aid usersstandard telephone settingwearing one hearing aid Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bimodal userstandard telephone settingwearing one hearing aid and one CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bimodal userDECTwearing one hearing aid and one CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
unilateral hearing aid usersEasyCallwearing one hearing aid Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
bilateral hearing aid usersstandard telephone settingwearing two hearing aids Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
CI usersstandard telephone settingwearing CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
CI usersDECTwearing CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
CI usersDuoPhonewearing CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
CI usersEasyCallwearing CI Intervention: Standard Phone, DECT Phone, Easy Call, Duo Phone
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
speech reception threshold (SRT) assessment with audiological measures6 months

differences in speech reception threshold (SRT) on the phone in the presence of background noise between the Phonak DECT phone and a standard phone will be assessed with audiological measures.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Subjective ratings assessment with scaling6 months

* differences in preference ratings in the presence of background noise between a standard phone, a standard phone + DuoPhone algorithm, the DECT-telephone

* differences in preference ratings in the presence of background noise between a standard mobile phone, a standard mobile phone + DuoPhone algorithm and a standard mobile phone + EasyCall accessory

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University Hospital Zurich, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

🇨🇭

Zurich, Switzerland

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