Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul; Fereczkowski, Michal; Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten; Neher, Tobias

doi:10.3390/audiolres11010002

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Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation

by

Raul Sanchez-Lopez

^1,*,†

,

Michal Fereczkowski

^1,2,3

,

Sébastien Santurette

^1,4

,

Torsten Dau

¹

and

Tobias Neher

^2,3,*

¹

Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

²

Institute of Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark

³

Research Unit for ORL - Head & Neck Surgery and Audiology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark; University of Southern Denmark, DK-5000 Odense, Denmark

⁴

Centre for Applied Audiology Research, Oticon A/S, DK-2765 Smørum, Denmark

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Current address: Interacoustics Research Unit (IRU), DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.

Audiol. Res. 2021, 11(1), 10-21; https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11010002

Submission received: 14 December 2020 / Revised: 8 January 2021 / Accepted: 12 January 2021 / Published: 16 January 2021

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Abstract

Background—The clinical characterization of hearing deficits for hearing-aid fitting purposes is typically based on the pure-tone audiogram only. In a previous study, a group of hearing-impaired listeners completed a comprehensive test battery that was designed to tap into different dimensions of hearing abilities. A data-driven analysis of the data yielded four clinically relevant patient sub-populations or “auditory profiles”. The purpose of the current study was to propose and pilot-test profile-based hearing-aid settings in order to explore their potential for providing more targeted hearing-aid treatment. Methods—Four candidate hearing-aid settings were developed and evaluated by a subset of the participants tested previously. The evaluation consisted of multi-comparison preference ratings that were carried out in realistic sound scenarios. Results—Listeners belonging to the different auditory profiles showed different patterns of preference for the tested hearing-aid settings that were largely consistent with the expectations. Conclusions—The results of this pilot evaluation support further investigations into stratified, profile-based hearing-aid fitting with wearable hearing aids.

Keywords: audiology; hearing-aid fitting; hearing-aid settings; hearing loss compensation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Sanchez-Lopez, R.; Fereczkowski, M.; Santurette, S.; Dau, T.; Neher, T. Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation. Audiol. Res. 2021, 11, 10-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11010002

AMA Style

Sanchez-Lopez R, Fereczkowski M, Santurette S, Dau T, Neher T. Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation. Audiology Research. 2021; 11(1):10-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11010002

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau, and Tobias Neher. 2021. "Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation" Audiology Research 11, no. 1: 10-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11010002

APA Style

Sanchez-Lopez, R., Fereczkowski, M., Santurette, S., Dau, T., & Neher, T. (2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation. Audiology Research, 11(1), 10-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11010002

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Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation

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