Hearing Aid apps: are they safe, practical and beneficial for children and teens in challenging situations?

Purpose: An adult version of an app giving users the control over the level of the volume, microphone directionality and noise reduction was adapted for children. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of changes made to microphone directionality and noise reduction in the myPhonak Junior (the app) on Speech intelligibility in challenging listening environments in children and teens.

Methods: The randomized, non-blinded interventional study with a single group of subjects involved two study visits with a home trial in-between.

Age standardization and time-of-day performance for the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA): results from the population-based Gutenberg Health Study.

Purpose: The Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA) is a German matrix test designed to determine speech recognition thresholds (SRT). It is widely used for hearing-aids and cochlear implant fitting, but an age-adjusted standard is still lacking. In addition, knowing that the ability to concentrate is an important factor in OLSA performance, we hypothesized that OLSA performance would depend on the time of day it was administered.

Tinnitus and Its Relation to Depression, Anxiety, and Stress-A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Tinnitus is a common symptom reported in otolaryngologic practice. Although the pathophysiology of tinnitus has not been fully understood, clinical studies suggest that psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization are increased in tinnitus patients. However, patients seeking medical treatment for tinnitus may be especially vulnerable.

The German hearing in noise test with a female talker: development and comparison with German male speech test.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to develop the German Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) with female speaker by fulfilling the recommendations by International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA) for using a female speaker to create new multilingual speech tests and to determine norms and to compare these norms with German male speech tests-the male speakers HINT and the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA).

Methods: The HINT with a female speaker consists of the same speech material as the male speaking HINT. After recording the speech material, 10 normal hearing subjects were included to determine the performance-intensity function (PI function).

The Prevalence of Hearing Loss and Provision With Hearing Aids in the Gutenberg Health Study.

Background: Hearing is a basic ability that is needed for participation in daily life. Hearing loss often greatly reduces a person's quality of life. Nevertheless, epidemiological data on the prevalence of hearing disorders in Germany are sparse.

Hearing rehabilitation for unilateral deafness using a cochlear implant: the influence of the subjective duration of deafness on speech intelligibility.

Background: For patients with single sided deafness (SSD) or severe asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss (ASHL), cochlear implantation remains the only solution to restore bilateral hearing capacity. Prognostically, the duration of hearing loss in terms of audiological outcome is not yet clear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate the influence of subjective deafness duration on postoperative speech perception after cochlear implantation for SSD as well as its impact on quality of life.

The German hearing in noise test.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to develop a German Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) using the same methodology as with previous HINT tests; to develop sentence lists for measuring speech reception thresholds (SRTs); and to determine test-retest reliability and norms for measures obtained under headphones.

Design: The following steps were followed: develop and record sentences, synthesise masking noise, determine the performance-intensity (PI) function, equalise sentence difficulty in the masking noise. Form sentence lists of equal difficulty.

Clinical benefit of wideband-tympanometry: a pediatric audiology clinical study.

Purpose: Wideband-tympanometry (WBT) could give more informative data about the tympanic condition than the conventional tympanometry. In the actual literature, the clinical profit of wideband-tympanometry in pediatric audiological settings is not well evaluated. The aim of this study was to analyze the additional clinical benefit.

The Effect of Adaptive Nonlinear Frequency Compression on Phoneme Perception.

Purpose: This study implemented a fitting method, developed for use with frequency lowering hearing aids, across multiple testing sites, participants, and hearing aid conditions to evaluate speech perception with a novel type of frequency lowering.

Method: A total of 8 participants, including children and young adults, participated in real-world hearing aid trials. A blinded crossover design, including posttrial withdrawal testing, was used to assess aided phoneme perception.

Unilateral hearing loss in children: a retrospective study and a review of the current literature.

Unlabelled: Despite the introduction of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS), unilateral hearing loss (UHL) is sometimes recognized late. This diagnostic delay has adverse repercussions, given the importance of binaural hearing for the development of normal auditory processing. It is incorrect to maintain that unilateral hearing is the minimum requirement for adequate speech development and that hearing aid provision is consequently unnecessary.

Evaluation of auditory development in infants and toddlers who received cochlear implants under the age of 24 months with the LittlEARS) Auditory Questionnaire.

Background And Aims: Newborn hearing screening and early intervention for congenital hearing loss have created a need for tools assessing the hearing development of very young children. A multidisciplinary evaluation of children's development is now becoming standard in clinical practice, though not many reliable diagnostic instruments exist. For this reason, the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) was created to assess the auditory skills of a growing population of infants and toddlers who receive hearing instruments.

Auditory, speech and language development in young children with cochlear implants compared with children with normal hearing.

Objective: This study had two aims: (1) to document the auditory and lexical development of children who are deaf and received the first cochlear implant (CI) by the age of 16 months and the second CI by the age of 31 months and (2) to compare these children's results with those of children with normal hearing (NH).

Methods: This longitudinal study included five children with NH and five with sensorineural deafness. All children of the second group were observed for 36 months after the first fitting of the device (cochlear implant).

Advantages of a non-linear frequency compression algorithm in noise.

A multichannel non-linear frequency compression algorithm was evaluated in comparison to conventional amplification hearing aids using a test of speech understanding in noise (Oldenburger Satztest-OLSA) and subjective questionnaires. The new algorithm compresses frequencies above a pre-calculated cut off frequency and shifts them to a lower frequency range, thereby providing high-frequency audibility. Low-frequencies, below the compression cut off frequency, are amplified normally.

The prelexical development in children implanted by 16 months compared with normal hearing children.

Objective: Few studies exist which document the early speech development of German-speaking children or German-speaking children who are deaf and using cochlear implants. The current study aims to: (1) document the pre-canonical and canonical speech development of German-speaking children who are deaf and receive cochlear implants by the age of 16 months and (2) compare these children's results with those of children with normal hearing.

Design: This longitudinal study included 5 German-speaking children with normal hearing and 5 with sensorineural deafness.

Cochlear implant and hearing aid: a new approach to optimizing the fitting in this bimodal situation.

More and more patients with residual hearing on the contralateral side are becoming candidates for cochlear implants (CI) surgery due to increasing CI. The major benefits of regular binaural hearing are spatial hearing, localization, and signal source discrimination in both quiet and noisy surroundings. In most of the reports, hearing aid fitting was carried out without balancing both the devices.

Intrafamilial variability of the deafness and goiter phenotype in Pendred syndrome caused by a T416P mutation in the SLC26A4 gene.

Pendred syndrome (PS) is the most common cause of syndromic deafness, accounting for more than 5% of all autosomal-recessive hearing loss cases. It is characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and by goiter with or without hypothyroidism. Mutations in the SLC26A4 gene cause both classical PS and deafness associated with an enlarged vestibular aqueduct without goiter.