Real World Perspectives on Advancements in Hearing Aid Technology

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Device: Phonak Audeo previous generation hearing aids
Device: Phonak Audeo Lumity hearing aids

Brief Summary: This study will compare different microphone technologies in a noisy environment when the dominant speaker is at the front, back, left, or right side of the listener.

Detailed Description: Understanding speech in a noisy environment can be difficult for people with hearing loss even with hearing aids. Hearing aid manufacturers have implanted various methods (i.e., directional micro-phones, noise reduction, noise cancelers) to try to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to increase the speech understanding in these difficult listening situations.

This study is evaluating different microphone technologies to determine listening effort when speech is to the back or side of the listener in noisy environment.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Moderate sensorineural hearing loss
Experienced hearing aid user
Has a significant other/communication partner that can fill out a questionnaire about hearing aid performance during the home trial
Smartphone user for receiving study alerts

Exclusion Criteria

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Participants tested with comparator devices first, then Audeo Lumity devices	Phonak Audeo Lumity hearing aids	All participants who completed speech in noise testing in the lab with the comparator devices first, and then the Audeo Lumity devices.
Participants who were tested with Audeo Lumity first, then comparator devices	Phonak Audeo Lumity hearing aids	All participants who completed speech in noise testing in the lab with the Audeo Lumity devices first, and then the comparator devices.
Participants tested with comparator devices first, then Audeo Lumity devices	Phonak Audeo previous generation hearing aids	All participants who completed speech in noise testing in the lab with the comparator devices first, and then the Audeo Lumity devices.
Participants who were tested with Audeo Lumity first, then comparator devices	Phonak Audeo previous generation hearing aids	All participants who completed speech in noise testing in the lab with the Audeo Lumity devices first, and then the comparator devices.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Speech in Noise Test	Day 1 of study	A speech in noise test in which participants repeat words which are presented in the presence of background noise. In a 12-speaker array, speech is presented from speakers either on the left side of the participant (-90 degrees) or from behind the participant (180 degrees) while background noise is presented from remaining speakers. Scores are calculated as the number of words correctly repeated and expressed as a percentage. A higher percentage or score is better.
Subjective Perception of Listening Effort	Day 1 of study	Following the speech in noise testing in the lab, participants rated their listening effort on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 = no effort and 10 = a lot of effort. In this case, a lower rating is better as it indicates less perceived listening effort.

Secondary Outcome Measures