Williams Victoria A, McArdle Rachel A, Chisolm Theresa H
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2012 Nov-Dec;23(10):789-806. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.23.10.5.
Patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), where one ear has an unaidable hearing loss and the other ear has normal or aidable hearing, often complain of difficulties understanding speech and localizing sound sources, and report a higher self-perceived hearing disability. Patients with SSD may benefit from using contralateral routing of signal (CROS) or bilateral contralateral routing of the signal (BiCROS) amplification. Dissatisfaction of previously available (Bi)CROS devices has been reported, such as, interfering transmissions, low-fidelity sound quality, poor "user-friendly" set-up, and a bulky and cosmetically cumbersome appearance.
Recent advances in hearing aid technology have improved (Bi)CROS hearing aids; however, these devices have not been experimentally evaluated. We hypothesized that newer technology with reports of improved digital signal processing, wireless transmission, and physical design would be as good, or better than, our participants' previous-generation BiCROS systems.
A within-subjects, pretest-posttest design was executed.
Thirty-nine veterans (one female, 38 males; mean age = 74 yr, range = 49-85 yr) from the Audiology Section of the Bay Pines Veterans Affair Healthcare System participated. All participants were previously experienced BiCROS hearing aid users with varying degrees of sensorinerual hearing impairment in their better ear.
Participants were provided at least 4 wk of consistent use with the new BiCROS. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSES: Participants completed three research visits. At Visit 1, with their previous BiCROS, and at Visit 3, with their new BiCROS, the following objective and subjective measures were obtained: (1) soundfield speech-in-noise testing using the Words-In-Noise (WIN) test; (2) speech, spatial, and qualities of the hearing scale (SSQ) questionnaire; (3) selected questions from the MarkeTrak questionnaire; and, (4) three open-ended questions. Data were analyzed using parametric and nonparametric statistics.
Overall, the objective (WIN) and subjective (SSQ, MarkeTrak, and open-ended questions) measures indicated that the new BiCROS provided better outcomes than the previous BiCROS system. In addition, an overlap of favorable results was seen across measures.
Of the 39 participants, 95% reported improvements with the new BiCROS and chose to utilize the device regularly. The favorable objective and subjective outcomes indicate that the new BiCROS system is as good, or better than, what was previously utilized by our sample of veterans.
单侧耳聋（SSD）患者，即一只耳朵存在无法改善的听力损失而另一只耳朵听力正常或可通过助听器改善，常抱怨理解言语和定位声源困难，并报告自我感知的听力残疾程度更高。SSD患者可能受益于使用信号对侧路由（CROS）或双侧信号对侧路由（BiCROS）放大装置。已有报告称，以前的（Bi）CROS装置存在不足之处，例如干扰传输、低保真音质、“用户友好性”设置不佳以及外观笨重且不美观。
助听器技术的最新进展改进了（Bi）CROS助听器；然而，这些装置尚未经过实验评估。我们假设，具有数字信号处理、无线传输和物理设计改进报告的新技术将与我们参与者的上一代BiCROS系统一样好，甚至更好。
采用受试者内前测-后测设计。
来自海湾松树退伍军人事务医疗系统听力科的39名退伍军人（1名女性，38名男性；平均年龄 = 74岁，范围 = 49 - 85岁）参与了研究。所有参与者均为以前使用过BiCROS助听器的用户，其较好耳朵存在不同程度的感音神经性听力损失。
为参与者提供至少4周的时间持续使用新型BiCROS。
参与者完成了三次研究访视。在访视1时使用他们之前的BiCROS，在访视3时使用新型BiCROS，获取了以下客观和主观测量数据：（1）使用噪声中的单词（WIN）测试进行声场言语噪声测试；（2）言语、空间和听力质量量表（SSQ）问卷；（3）来自市场追踪问卷的选定问题；以及（4）三个开放式问题。使用参数和非参数统计方法对数据进行分析。
总体而言，客观（WIN）和主观（SSQ、市场追踪问卷以及开放式问题）测量结果表明，新型BiCROS比之前的BiCROS系统提供了更好的结果。此外，各项测量结果之间存在有利结果的重叠。
在39名参与者中，95%报告称新型BiCROS有改善，并选择定期使用该装置。客观和主观方面的良好结果表明，新型BiCROS系统与我们退伍军人样本之前使用的系统一样好，甚至更好。
