Date of Award
12-18-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Communication Disorders, MCD
First Advisor
David McDaniel
Committee Members
Amy Shollenbarger; Christina Akbari; John Beineke; Roy Aldridge
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2015 T43
Abstract
This study investigated the feasibility of quantifying hearing aid benefit by means of speech-in-noise testing, specifically a modified version of the QuickSIN. Participants were recruited from the files of a licensed audiologist and all had sensorineural hearing loss, requiring hearing aids. Nineteen experienced hearing aid users were selected to participate in the study. Each individual listened, in aided and unaided conditions, to sentences embedded with increasing levels of background noise. Signal-to-noise ratio loss scores were calculated and averaged across conditions. Additionally, the relationship between participants’ audibility indexes and aided and unaided signal-to-noise ratio loss scores were analyzed. Results from this investigation showed statistically significant differences in the signal-to-noise ratio loss between aided and unaided conditions. A significant correlation was obtained between the audibility indexes and signal-to-noise ratio loss scores. Further study is indicated to validate the use of the QuickSIN test and audibility indexes as a metric for quantifying hearing aid benefit.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Thrasher, Morgan Ann, "The Use of Speech-in-Noise Testing as a Measure of Hearing Aid Benefit" (2015). Student Theses and Dissertations. 685.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/685
