Jacobs Peter G, Kaye Jeffrey A
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health & Science University, CHH 13B, 3303 SW Bond Avenue, Portland OR.
Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, CHH 13B, 3303 SW Bond Avenue, Portland, OR 97214.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2015 Oct;26(9):777-83. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.15010.
Hearing impairment and hearing rehabilitation strategies have historically been studied within the confines of a sound booth under controlled experimental conditions. The real world is quite different from the clinical setting and it is important to study how a person with hearing impairment interacts with the world both with and without a hearing assist intervention. A person's ability to hear enables them to communicate and to effectively interact with the world. If a person suffers from hearing impairment, we might anticipate that they could become more disengaged from the world, more socially isolated, potentially depressed, and have additional comorbidities such as cognitive and physical impairment. Indeed, prior research has shown that hearing impairment is associated with social isolation, decreased functional ability and mobility, fall risk, diabetes, and cognitive impairment. However, nearly all of the work that has been done in this area of assessing the impact of hearing impairment on a person's social, cognitive, and physical health has been done through clinical tests or self-report studies using questionnaires and surveys that attempt to objectively quantify various aspects of health. Unfortunately, clinical tests, questionnaires, and surveys oftentimes inaccurately assess a person's true social, cognitive, and physical health. Only when a person is observed in their natural living environment can a more accurate assessment of health be obtained. The ability to assess hearing health, social engagement, cognitive, and physical health in natural living environments is becoming possible with the advent of ubiquitous sensing capabilities.
Here we discuss some of the work that has been done by our group and others that may be of use to the field of audiology e-health. The purpose of this article is not to present new experimental data, but rather to describe a new method of using advanced in-home sensing techniques to better understand how hearing diagnostics, interventions, and rehabilitation influence the lives and behaviors of patients.
历史上，听力障碍及听力康复策略的研究一直局限于隔音室的可控实验条件下。现实世界与临床环境大不相同，研究听力障碍患者在有无听力辅助干预的情况下如何与外界互动非常重要。一个人的听力使其能够进行交流并有效地与外界互动。如果一个人患有听力障碍，我们可能会预期他们会与外界更加脱节、社交上更加孤立、可能会抑郁，并且会出现诸如认知和身体障碍等其他合并症。事实上，先前的研究表明，听力障碍与社交孤立、功能能力和活动能力下降、跌倒风险、糖尿病以及认知障碍有关。然而，在评估听力障碍对一个人的社会、认知和身体健康影响的这一领域中，几乎所有工作都是通过临床测试或使用问卷和调查的自我报告研究来完成的，这些研究试图客观地量化健康的各个方面。不幸的是，临床测试、问卷和调查往往无法准确评估一个人的真实社会、认知和身体健康状况。只有在自然生活环境中观察一个人，才能获得对健康更准确的评估。随着无处不在的传感能力的出现，在自然生活环境中评估听力健康、社交参与度、认知和身体健康成为可能。
在此，我们讨论我们团队以及其他团队所做的一些可能对听力学电子健康领域有用的工作。本文的目的不是展示新的实验数据，而是描述一种使用先进的家庭传感技术来更好地理解听力诊断、干预和康复如何影响患者生活和行为的新方法。
