Acoustic reflex threshold measurement in hearing aid selection.

Aided speech discrimination scores were obtained for 18 patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Monosyllabic word discrimination lists with a competing message of connected discourse at a signal-to-noise ratio of +10 dB were used as the test stimuli, and measurements were made at four hearing aid gain settings for each subject. One of the gain settings was determined by measuring the acoustic reflex threshold for filtered noise in the ear contralateral to the aided ear. Two other settings were at +/- 10 dB relative to the reflex threshold gain setting; the fourth setting was determined with a traditional approach. Mean speech discrimination scores were highest at the reflex threshold gain setting and similar at the other three settings.