Comparison of hearing-aid effectiveness based on user-operated versus traditional audiometry: a randomised clinical trial.

Objective: To investigate whether hearing-aid fitting based on user-operated audiometry is non-inferior to hearing-aid fitting based on traditional audiometry.

Design: This non-inferiority randomised clinical trial, took place at Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark. In a first visit, participants were tested with traditional audiometry as well as user-operated audiometry and filled in the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ12) at baseline.

Development and evaluation of a novel user-operated slider-based audiometry method.

Objective: To evaluate a novel user-operated audiometry method allowing users full control in determining their pure-tone hearing thresholds.

Design: Comparative study. Participants were recruited from a hearing clinic after undergoing manual audiometry (six frequencies).

Hearing Loss, Hearing Aid Use, and Risk of Dementia in Older Adults.

Importance: Hearing loss has been suggested as a risk factor for dementia, but there is still a need for high-quality research to better understand the association between these 2 conditions and the underlying causal mechanisms and treatment benefits using larger cohorts and detailed data.

Objective: To investigate the association between hearing loss and incident dementia, as well as how hearing aid use contributes to this association.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cohort study was conducted in Southern Denmark between January 2003 and December 2017 and included all residents 50 years and older.

AMTASTM and user-operated smartphone research application audiometry-An evaluation study.

Objective: To evaluate two user-operated audiometry methods, the AMTASTM PC-based audiometry and a low-cost smartphone audiometry research application (R-App).

Design: A repeated-measures within-subject study design was used to compare both user-operated methods to traditional manual audiometry and to evaluate test-retest reliability of each method.

Study Sample: 58 subjects were recruited in the study of which 83 ears had normal hearing thresholds and 33 ears had hearing loss (pure-tone average > 25 dB HL).

Eye-Tracking on Touch Screen - Evaluating User Interaction.

This paper suggests a setup for using remote eye-tracking on a touchscreen tablet to evaluate user interaction for older adults interacting with a user-driven hearing test. By using video recordings to support the eye-tracking data, it was possible to evaluate quantitative usability metrics that could be compared to other research findings. The video recordings revealed useful information to distinguish between reasons for gaps in data and missing data and to inform future similar studies of human-computer interaction on a touch screen.

Ambient Noise in Candidate Rooms for User-Operated Audiometry.

Hearing loss is a widespread problem while treatment is not always accessible, mainly because of the limited availability of hearing care professionals and clinics. In this work, part of the User-Operated Audiometry project, we investigate the acoustic environment of inexpensive non-sound-treated rooms that could be used for unsupervised audiometric testing. Measurements of 10 min of ambient noise were taken from 20 non-sound-treated rooms in libraries and private and public clinics, nine of which were measured twice.

Transportation Noise and Risk of Tinnitus: A Nationwide Cohort Study from Denmark.

Background: There is a growing body of evidence linking residential exposure to transportation noise with several nonauditory health outcomes. However, auditory outcomes, such as tinnitus, are virtually unexplored.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between residential transportation noise and risk of incident tinnitus.

User-operated audiometry - an evaluation of expert vs. non-expert headphone placement.

Objective: User-operated audiometry faces multiple barriers. One of these is the concern of audiologists that patients (non-experts) placing headphones by themselves results in invalid hearing thresholds due to greater placement variability.

Design: Comparative study.

User-Operated Audiometry Project (UAud) - Introducing an Automated User-Operated System for Audiometric Testing Into Everyday Clinic Practice.

Hearing loss is the third leading cause of years lived with disability. It is estimated that 430 million people worldwide are affected, and the number of cases is expected to increase in the future. There is therefore increased pressure on hearing health systems around the world to improve efficiency and reduce costs to ensure increased access to quality hearing health care.

Residential exposure to transportation noise in Denmark and incidence of dementia: national cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the association between long term residential exposure to road traffic and railway noise and risk of incident dementia.

Design: Nationwide prospective register based cohort study.

Setting: Denmark.

Hearing examinations in Southern Denmark (HESD) database: a valuable tool for hearing-related epidemiological research.

Objective: To introduce and document the recently established HESD (Hearing Examinations in Southern Denmark) database, including the necessary data preprocessing steps, and to describe the hearing loss (HL) characteristics of the study sample.

Design: Clinical auditory information has been collected for approximately 20 years in the state-funded clinics of the Region of Southern Denmark. We reviewed these data and conducted extensive preprocessing through data selection, integration, cleaning, transformation, and classification.

A European Perspective on Auditory Processing Disorder-Current Knowledge and Future Research Focus.

Current notions of "hearing impairment," as reflected in clinical audiological practice, do not acknowledge the needs of individuals who have normal hearing pure tone sensitivity but who experience auditory processing difficulties in everyday life that are indexed by reduced performance in other more sophisticated audiometric tests such as speech audiometry in noise or complex non-speech sound perception. This disorder, defined as "Auditory Processing Disorder" (APD) or "Central Auditory Processing Disorder" is classified in the current tenth version of the International Classification of diseases as H93.25 and in the forthcoming beta eleventh version.

Reproducibility of Dual-Microphone Voice Range Profile Equipment.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to add further knowledge about the usefulness of the Voice Range Profile (VRP) assessment in clinical settings and research by analyzing VRP dual-microphone equipment precision, reliability, and room effect.

Method: Test-retest studies were conducted in an anechoic chamber and an office: (a) comparing sound pressure levels (SPLs) from a dual-microphone VRP device, the Voice Profiler, when given the same input repeatedly (test-retest reliability); (b) comparing SPLs from 3 devices when given the same input repeatedly (intervariation); and (c) assessing the room effect.

Results: (a) The mean standard deviation across 17 measurement points was 0.

Implementation and evaluation of a Danish test battery for auditory processing disorder in children.

Objective: This study presents a Danish test battery for auditory processing disorder (APD). The tests were evaluated as to normative cut-off values (pass-fail criteria) and their test-retest reliability.

Design: The battery consists of four behavioural tests: the filtered words (FW) test, the dichotic digits (DD) test, the gap detection (GD) test and the binaural masking level difference (BMLD) test.

Simulated Critical Differences for Speech Reception Thresholds.

Purpose: Critical differences state by how much 2 test results have to differ in order to be significantly different. Critical differences for discrimination scores have been available for several decades, but they do not exist for speech reception thresholds (SRTs). This study presents and discusses how critical differences for SRTs can be estimated by Monte Carlo simulations.

Speech perception in medico-legal assessment of hearing disabilities.

Objective: Examination of Danish data for medico-legal compensations regarding hearing disabilities. The study purposes are: (1) to investigate whether discrimination scores (DSs) relate to patients' subjective experience of their hearing and communication ability (the latter referring to audio-visual perception), (2) to compare DSs from different discrimination tests (auditory/audio-visual perception and without/with noise), and (3) to relate different handicap measures in the scaling used for compensation purposes in Denmark.

Design: Data from a 15 year period (1999-2014) were collected and analysed.

Hearing loss in relation to sound exposure of professional symphony orchestra musicians.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: (1) estimate the hearing status of classical symphony orchestra musicians and (2) investigate the hypothesis that occupational sound exposure of symphony orchestra musicians leads to elevated hearing thresholds.

Design: The study population comprised all the musicians from five symphony orchestras. Questionnaires were filled in by 337 subjects, and 212 subjects performed an audiometric test.

A user-operated audiometry method based on the maximum likelihood principle and the two-alternative forced-choice paradigm.

Objective: To create a user-operated pure-tone audiometry method based on the method of maximum likelihood (MML) and the two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) paradigm with high test-retest reliability without the need of an external operator and with minimal influence of subjects' fluctuating response criteria. User-operated audiometry was developed as an alternative to traditional audiometry for research purposes among musicians.

Design: Test-retest reliability of the user-operated audiometry system was evaluated and the user-operated audiometry system was compared with traditional audiometry.

User-operated speech in noise test: implementation and comparison with a traditional test.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate a user-operated speech in noise test.

Design: The test is based on the Danish speech material Dantale II, which consists of five words sentences ( Wagener et al, 2003 ). For each word presented the subject selected a response from ten alternative words.

Sound exposure of symphony orchestra musicians.

Background: Assessment of sound exposure by noise dosimetry can be challenging especially when measuring the exposure of classical orchestra musicians where sound originate from many different instruments. A new measurement method of bilateral sound exposure of classical musicians was developed and used to characterize sound exposure of the left and right ear simultaneously in two different symphony orchestras.

Objectives: To measure binaural sound exposure of professional classical musicians and to identify possible exposure risk factors of specific musicians.