Hearing-aid adaptation tests and sound impression in the initial fitting of hearing aids

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the adaptation condition and subjective sound impression under hearing-aid initial fitting during the initial fitting of a hearing aid. Five patients with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were enrolled in this study. Four types of hearing aids were adjusted fitted for each patient in both ears, in order to compare the results among them. The objective evaluation was conducted using the hearing-aid adaptation test (2010) according to the Japanese guideline, and the subjective evaluation was performed by a semantic-differential method. The results revealed that all of the hearing-aids were adapted. In regard to the sound impression, it seemed significantly more “calm” with hearing aids equipped with multichannel compression and noise suppression systems than with those without these systems, and “clear” with hearing aids with wide-frequency bandwidths. However, the sound impression varied among individuals and sound sources. Therefore, subjective evaluation of hearing aids necessitates the use of sound sources with different frequency characteristics, and the wearing of hearing aids needs to be evaluated not only objectively, but also subjectively.