It has been shown that monitoring temporary threshold shift (TTS) after exposure to noise may have a predictive value for susceptibility of developing permanent noise-induced hearing loss. The aim of ...this study is to present the assumptions of the TTS predictive model after its verification in normal hearing subjects along with demonstrating the usage of this model for the purposes of public health policy.
The existing computational predictive TTS models were adapted and validated in a group of 18 bartenders exposed to noise at the workplace. The performance of adapted TTS predictive model was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The demonstration example of the usage of this model for estimating the risk of TTS in general unscreened population after exposure to loud music in discotheque bars or music clubs is provided.
The adapted TTS predictive model shows a satisfactory agreement in distributions of actual and predicted TTS values and good correlations between these values in examined bartenders measured at 4 kHz, and as a mean at speech frequencies (0.5-4 kHz). An optimal cut-off level for recognizing the TTS events, ca. 75% of young people (aged ca. 35 years) may experience TTS >5 dB, while <10% may exhibit TTS of 15-18 dB.
The final TTS predictive model proposed in this study needs to be validated in larger groups of subjects exposed to noise. Actual prediction of TTS episodes in general populations may become a helpful tool in creating the hearing protection public health policy. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(1):125-38.
We investigate the short-term association between multidimensional acoustic characteristics of everyday ambient sound and continuous mean heart rate. We used in-market data from hearing aid users who ...logged ambient acoustics via smartphone-connected hearing aids and continuous mean heart rate in 5 min intervals from their own wearables. We find that acoustic characteristics explain approximately 4% of the fluctuation in mean heart rate throughout the day. Specifically, increases in ambient sound pressure intensity are significantly related to increases in mean heart rate, corroborating prior laboratory and short-term real-world data. In addition, increases in ambient sound quality-that is, more favourable signal to noise ratios-are associated with decreases in mean heart rate. Our findings document a previously unrecognized mixed influence of everyday sounds on cardiovascular stress, and that the relationship is more complex than is seen from an examination of sound intensity alone. Thus, our findings highlight the relevance of ambient environmental sound in models of human ecophysiology.
People with hearing impairment find competing voices scenarios to be challenging, both with respect to switching attention from one talker to the other, as well as maintaining attention. With the ...Danish competing voices test (CVT) presented here, the dual-attention skills can be assessed. The CVT provides sentences spoken by three male and three female talkers, played in sentence pairs. The task of the listener is to repeat the target sentence from the sentence pair based on cueing either before or after playback. One potential way of assisting segregation of two talkers is to take advantage of spatial unmasking by presenting one talker per ear after application of time-frequency masks for separating the mixture. Using the CVT, this study evaluated four spatial conditions in 14 moderate-to-severely hearing-impaired listeners to establish benchmark results for this type of algorithm applied to hearing-impaired listeners. The four spatial conditions were as follows: summed (diotic), separate, the ideal ratio mask, and the ideal binary mask. The results show that the test is sensitive to the change in spatial condition. The temporal position of the cue has a large impact, as cueing the target talker before playback focuses the attention toward the target, whereas cueing after playback requires equal attention to the two talkers, which is more difficult. Furthermore, both applied ideal masks show test scores very close to the ideal separate spatial condition, suggesting that this technique is useful for future separation algorithms using estimated rather than ideal masks.
Disabling HL is associated with early cognitive decline in adults (Olusanya et al., 2014), and when unaddressed, HL restricts social integration and reduces employment and educational opportunities, ...hampers emotional well-being and, thus, poses an economic challenge at both the individual and national level (Wilson et al., 2017). ...more and more individuals suffer from HL, which is primarily due to increases in everyday noise exposure and an increase of the aging population (World Health Organization, 2017). The hearing aids log data about the user's sound environment (Pontoppidan et al., 2018), hearing aid use (i.e., on/off) and hearing aid settings on a minute-by-minute basis; a phone app developed for the study collects information about the user's physical location via GPS (Dritsakis et al., 2018). ...EVOTION will provide an evidence base for formulating and evaluating the impacts of public health policy pertaining to prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment/rehabilitation for adults with hearing impairment. Here, n is the size of the source input (rows), ε = 0.1, d is the number of variables, and k = 4. ...the covariance between source parameters are preserved by allowing the empirical PDFs to be conditioned in the Bayesian network. ...we do not have access to low-level details of the signal-processing taking place in the hearing aids. ...we do not include real-time data on how the hearing aids autonomously reacts to the sound environment (e.g., adjusting noise reduction or compression characteristics).
Data for monitoring individual hearing aid usage has historically been limited to retrospective questionnaires or data logged intrinsically in the hearing aid cumulatively over time (e. g., days or ...more). This limits the investigation of longitudinal interactions between hearing aid use and environmental or behavioral factors. Recently it has become possible to analyze remotely logged hearing aid data from in-market and smartphone compatible hearing aids. This can provide access to novel insights about individual hearing aid usage patterns and their association to environmental factors. Here, we use remotely logged longitudinal data from 64 hearing aid users to establish basic norms regarding smartphone connectivity (i.e., comparing remotely logged data with cumulative true hearing aid on-time) and to assess whether such data can provide representative information about ecological usage patterns. The remotely logged data consists of minute-by-minute timestamped logs of cumulative hearing aid on-time and characteristics of the momentary acoustic environment. Using K-means clustering, we demonstrate that hourly hearing aid usage patterns (i.e., usage as minutes/hour) across participants are separated by four clusters that account for almost 50% of the day-to-day variation. The clusters indicate that hearing aids are worn either sparsely throughout the day; early morning to afternoon; from noon to late evening; or across the day from morning to late evening. Using linear mixed-effects regression modeling, we document significant associations between daily signal-to-noise, sound intensity, and sound diversity with hearing aid usage. Participants encounter louder, noisier, and more diverse sound environments the longer the hearing aids are worn. Finally, we find that remote logging via smartphones underestimates the daily hearing aid usage with a pooled median of 1.25 h, suggesting an overall connectivity of 85%. The 1.25 h difference is constant across days varying in total hearing aid on-time, and across participants varying in average daily hearing aid-on-time, and it does not depend on the identified patterns of daily hearing aid usage. In sum, remote data logging with hearing aids has high representativeness and face-validity, and can offer ecologically true information about individual usage patterns and the interaction between usage and everyday contexts.
Introduction
This study aimed to investigate the daily sound exposure of hearing aid (HA) users during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on the impact of different governance intervention ...levels.
Methods
Modern HA technology was employed to measure and compare the sound exposure of HA users in three distinct periods: pre-pandemic, and two 14-day periods during the pandemic, corresponding to varying levels of governance interventions. The study sample comprised a total of 386 HA users in Europe during the pandemic, with daily sound exposure data collected as part of the main dataset.
Results
The results revealed that, during the pandemic, the equivalent continuous sound pressure level (SPL) experienced by HA users decreased, while the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increased compared to the pre-pandemic period. Notably, this impact was found to be more pronounced (
p
< 0.05) when individuals were subjected to stronger governance intervention levels, characterized by lower SPL and higher SNR.
Discussion
This study highlights the changes in daily sound exposure experienced by HA users during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly influenced by the extent of governance interventions that restricted social activities. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the effects of pandemic-related governance measures on the sound environments of HA users and have implications for audiological interventions and support strategies during similar crises.
Hearing loss is a major public health challenge. Audiology services need to utilise a range of rehabilitative services and maximise innovative practice afforded by technology to actively promote ...personalized, participatory, preventative and predictive care if they are to cope with the social and economic burden placed on the population by the rapidly rising prevalence of hearing loss. Digital interventions and teleaudiology could be a key part of providing high quality, cost-effective, patient-centred management. There is currently very limited evidence that assesses the hearing impaired patient perspective on the acceptance and usability of this type of technology.
This study aims to identify patient perceptions of the use of a hearing support system including a mobile smartphone app when used with Bluetooth-connected hearing aids across the everyday life of users, as part of the EVOTION project.
We applied a questionnaire to 564 participants in three countries across Europe and analysed the following topics: connectivity, hearing aid controls, instructional videos, audiological tests and auditory training.
Older users were just as satisfied as younger users when operating this type of technology. Technical problems such as Bluetooth connectivity need to be minimised as this issue is highly critical for user satisfaction, engagement and uptake. A system that promotes user-controllability of hearing aids that is more accessible and easier to use is highly valued. Participants are happy to utilise monitoring tests and auditory training on a mobile phone out of the clinic but in order to have value the test battery needs to be relevant and tailored to each user, easy to understand and use. Such functions can elicit a negative as well as positive experience for each user.
Older and younger adults can utilise an eHealth mobile app to complement their rehabilitation and health care. If the technology works well, is tailored to the individual and in-depth personalised guidance and support is provided, it could assist maximisation of hearing aid uptake, promotion of self-management and improving outcomes.
Highlights • Cortical auditory evoked responses are sensitive to the encoding complex acoustic cues important for pitch perception. • Combined approach using behavioural and electrophysiological ...tests are useful to measure pitch processing in individuals with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss. • Individuals with sensorineural hearing loss have reduced sensitivity to complex acoustic cues compared to controls.
The lack of individualized fitting of hearing aids results in many patients never getting the intended benefits, in turn causing the devices to be left unused in a drawer. However, living with an ...untreated hearing loss has been found to be one of the leading lifestyle related causes of dementia and cognitive decline. Taking a radically different approach to personalize the fitting process of hearing aids, by learning contextual preferences from user-generated data, we in this paper outline the results obtained through a 9-month pilot study. Empowering the user to select between several settings using Internet of things (IoT) connected hearing aids allows for modeling individual preferences and thereby identifying distinct coping strategies. These behavioral patterns indicate that users prefer to switch between highly contrasting aspects of omnidirectionality and noise reduction dependent on the context, rather than relying on the medium “one size fits all” program frequently provided by default in hearing health care. We argue that an IoT approach facilitated by the usage of smartphones may constitute a paradigm shift, enabling continuous personalization of settings dependent on the changing context. Furthermore, making the user an active part of the fitting solution based on self-tracking may increase engagement and awareness and thus improve the quality of life for hearing impaired users.
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