Humes L E, Christensen L, Thomas T, Bess F H, Hedley-Williams A, Bentler R
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1999 Feb;42(1):65-79. doi: 10.1044/jslhr.4201.65.
The aided performance and benefit achieved with linear and two-channel wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aids were established in 55 individuals. Study participants had been wearing either linear or adaptive-frequency-response (Bass Increase at Low Levels, BILL) ITC hearing aids for approximately one year before participation in this study. Outcome measures included aided performance and objective benefit in quiet and noise at a variety of speech levels (50, 60, and 75 dB SPL), at various levels of babble background (quiet, signal-to-babble ratios of +5 and +10 dB), and for various types of test materials (monosyllabic words and sentences in connected speech). Several subjective measures of aided performance (sound-quality judgments and magnitude estimates of listening effort) and relative benefit (improvement in listening effort and the Hearing Aid Performance Inventory, HAPI) were also obtained. Finally, self-report measures of hearing-aid use were also obtained using daily logs. Participants completed all outcome measures for the linear ITC hearing aids first, following 2 months of usage, and then repeated all outcome measures for the WDRC instruments after a subsequent 2-month period of use. In general, although both types of hearing aids demonstrated significant benefit, the results indicated that the WDRC instruments were superior to the linear devices for many of the outcome measures. This tended to be the case most frequently when low speech levels were used. Many of the performance differences between devices most likely can be ascribed to differences in gain, and prescriptive approaches (DSL[i/o] vs. NAL-R), for the fixed volume control testing performed in this study.
在55名个体中确定了耳道式（ITC）助听器采用线性和双通道宽动态范围压缩（WDRC）所实现的辅助听力表现及益处。研究参与者在参与本研究之前已佩戴线性或自适应频率响应（低频增强，BILL）ITC助听器约一年时间。结果测量包括在多种言语水平（50、60和75 dB声压级）、不同程度的嘈杂背景（安静、信号与嘈杂比为+5和+10 dB）以及针对各种测试材料（连贯言语中的单音节词和句子）下安静和噪声环境中的辅助听力表现及客观益处。还获得了辅助听力表现的若干主观测量指标（音质判断和听力努力程度估计）以及相对益处（听力努力程度改善和助听器性能量表，HAPI）。最后，通过每日日志获得了助听器使用情况的自我报告测量指标。参与者首先在使用线性ITC助听器2个月后完成所有结果测量，随后在使用WDRC仪器2个月后重复所有结果测量。总体而言，虽然两种类型的助听器都显示出显著益处，但结果表明，在许多结果测量指标上，WDRC仪器优于线性设备。在使用低言语水平时，这种情况最为常见。本研究中针对固定音量控制测试的设备之间的许多性能差异很可能归因于增益差异以及处方方法（DSL[i/o]与NAL-R）。
