International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids: Data From a Large Swedish Quality Register Database.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze a database of completed International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) questionnaires obtained from over 100,000 clients fitted with new hearing aids in Sweden during the period of 2012-2016. Mean IOI-HA total scores were correlated with degree of hearing loss, unilateral versus bilateral fitting, first-time versus return clients, gender, and variation among dispensing clinics. The correlations with expectations, service quality, and technical functioning of the hearing aids were also analyzed.

International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA) recommendations for the construction of multilingual speech tests. ICRA Working Group on Multilingual Speech Tests.

Objective: To provide guidelines for the development of two types of closed-set speech-perception tests that can be applied and interpreted in the same way across languages. The guidelines cover the digit triplet and the matrix sentence tests that are most commonly used to test speech recognition in noise. They were developed by a working group on Multilingual Speech Tests of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA).

Dynamic relation between working memory capacity and speech recognition in noise during the first 6 months of hearing aid use.

The present study aimed to investigate the changing relationship between aided speech recognition and cognitive function during the first 6 months of hearing aid use. Twenty-seven first-time hearing aid users with symmetrical mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss were recruited. Aided speech recognition thresholds in noise were obtained in the hearing aid fitting session as well as at 3 and 6 months postfitting.

Sounds perceived as annoying by hearing-aid users in their daily soundscape.

Background: The noises in modern soundscapes continue to increase and are a major origin for annoyance. For a hearing-impaired person, a hearing aid is often beneficial, but noise and annoying sounds can result in non-use of the hearing aid, temporary or permanently.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify annoying sounds in a daily soundscape for hearing-aid users.

Audiometric screening of a population with intellectual disability.

Objective: Evaluation of pure-tone audiometry (PTA) in hearing screening of a population with mild to profound intellectual disability (ID).

Design: PTA was performed at six frequencies at the screening level 20 dB HL. Referral criteria were threshold levels ≥ 25 dB HL at two or more frequencies for one ear or both.

Hearing loss is negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory but not to short-term memory.

Purpose: To test the relationship between degree of hearing loss and different memory systems in hearing aid users.

Method: Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to study the relationship between auditory and visual acuity and different cognitive and memory functions in an age-hetereogenous subsample of 160 hearing aid users without dementia, drawn from the Swedish prospective cohort aging study known as Betula (L.-G.

The emergence of cognitive hearing science.

Cognitive Hearing Science or Auditory Cognitive Science is an emerging field of interdisciplinary research concerning the interactions between hearing and cognition. It follows a trend over the last half century for interdisciplinary fields to develop, beginning with Neuroscience, then Cognitive Science, then Cognitive Neuroscience, and then Cognitive Vision Science. A common theme is that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to understand complex human behaviors, to develop technologies incorporating knowledge of these behaviors, and to find solutions for individuals with impairments that undermine typical behaviors.

The design of a project to assess bilateral versus unilateral hearing aid fitting.

Binaural hearing provides advantages over monaural in several ways, particularly in difficult listening situations. For a person with bilateral hearing loss, the bilateral fitting of hearing aids thus seems like a natural choice. However, surprisingly few studies have been reported in which the additional benefit of bilateral versus unilateral hearing aid use has been investigated based on real-life experiences.

On the sneeze-reflex and its control.

Experiments in cats have shown that sneezing can be induced using low intensity electrical current. This study focusses on answering the question whether the sneezing-reflex can also be induced in man through electrical stimulation, whether it is reproducible, and if the response can be abolished pharmacologically? Three healthy males were tested using intranasal stimulation in different parts of the nose using a current from an electric pulse generator. Using currents in the range 2-11 mA, it was possible to induce and reproduce sneezing in the anterior portion of the nose corresponding to the distribution area of the anterior ethmoidal nerve.

Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: results drawn from the Swedish national database.

Conclusion: The first results from 300 patients in a Swedish national database for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) demonstrate that corticosteroids or 'no treatment at all' are the treatment options in use today. No significant difference in outcome was seen between treated and non-treated patients. Since spontaneous recovery might be the cause, a placebo-controlled randomized study is required before a positive effect of corticosteroids can be asserted.

A survey of public health policy on bilateral fittings and comparison with market trends: the evidence-base required to frame policy.

This report presents a review of the situation in a number of countries with respect to public health policy for funding of hearing aid services in general and support to bilateral fittings in particular. The data show considerable variations among the countries studied in number of hearing aids fitted per 1000 inhabitants, differing by a factor of 6 between the extremes. Also the percentage of bilateral fittings differs with an average estimated to be of the order of 50%.

A Swedish version of the Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) for measurement of speech recognition.

A Swedish Hearing In Noise Test (HINT), consisting of everyday sentences to be used in an adaptive procedure to estimate the speech recognition thresholds in noise and quiet, has been developed. The material consists of 250 sentences, with a length of five to nine syllables, normalized for naturalness, difficulty and reliability. The sentences were recorded with a female speaker.

[Local overpressure treatment reduces vestibular symptoms in patients with Menière's disease--secondary publication. A clinically randomised multicenter double-blind placebo-controlled study].

This investigation was performed to evaluate the efficacy of a new device, the Méniètt, in the treatment of Ménière's disease. The device delivers pressure pulses to the middle ear through a ventilating tube in the tympanic membrane. These pressure changes are conveyed to the inner ear, reducing the endolymphatic hydrops.

Speech understanding in quiet and noise, with and without hearing aids.

Speech recognition and cognitive functions important for speech understanding were evaluated by objective measures and by scores of perceived effort, with and without hearing aids. The tests were performed in silence, and with background conditions of speech spectrum random noise and ordinary speech. One young and one elderly group of twelve hearing-impaired subjects each participated.

Cognitive performance and perceived effort in speech processing tasks: effects of different noise backgrounds in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects.

Cognitive tests of speech understanding were administered (presented as text, or in auditory or audiovisual modality) and perceived effort was rated. This was done in four background conditions: in silence, and in three types of noise (S/N=+10 dB) varying in temporal structure and meaningfulness. Four groups of 12 subjects each (young/elderly with normal hearing and young/elderly with hearing impairment) participated.

Local overpressure treatment reduces vestibular symptoms in patients with Meniere's disease: a clinical, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a new device, the Meniett, in the treatment of Meniere's disease. The device delivers pressure pulses to the middle ear through a ventilating tube in the tympanic membrane at a frequency of 6 Hz for 0.6 second.

Otoacoustic emissions and tympanometry in a general adult population in Sweden.

The present study concerns a general adult population in Sweden, not exposed to hazardous occupational noise. Tympanometry and spontaneous (SOAE), transient evoked (TEOAE) and distortion-product (DPOAE) otoacoustic emissions were investigated in 493 randomly selected men and women aged from 20 to 79 years. Effects of gender, age, ear side and middle ear state were determined, with and without adjusting for hearing threshold level.

[A national database could solve the issue of sudden sensorineural hearing loss].

A national database is being organised for the disease Sudden Sensorineural Hearing-loss, SSH (often called "Sudden deafness"). The cause of SSH is unknown. Many theories have given rise to many treatment regimens: the vascular theory, assuming a reduced blood flow to the inner ear, the infection theory, assuming bacteria or virus being the etiological agent, and the auto-immune theory, where also blood vessels may be involved.

Negative consequences of uncorrected hearing loss--a review.

Hearing loss gives rise to a number of disabilities. Problems in recognizing speech, especially in difficult environments, give rise to the largest number of complaints. Other kinds of disabilities may concern the reduced ability to detect, identify and localize sounds quickly and reliably.

The development of noise-induced hearing loss in the Swedish County of Ostergötland in the 1980s and 1990s.

This retrospective cross-sectional study of median hearing threshold levels of males employed in two specific occupations shows that the trend with decreasing noise-induced hearing loss in Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s continues into the 1990s. In the occupational categories mechanical work and wood processing men in age groups 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 years old examined during the time period 1971-76, 1981-86 and 1991-96 were compared. Possible explanations to the improvement might be a wider use of hearing protectors at work and less exposure to noise during military service.

Prevalence of hearing impairment in a population in Sweden.

An epidemiological study was carried out, based on 590 randomly selected subjects, aged from 20 to 80 years, in the province of Ostergötland in Sweden. The results obtained were similar to published results from other countries, with an overall prevalence of subjects with average hearing threshold levels over the frequencies 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz (M4) equal to or exceeding 25 dB HL for the better ear (BE) of 16.

Binaural masking level difference for speech signals in noise.

This study investigates the binaural masking level difference in both detection and recognition of speech embedded in noise when the signal is phase-shifted 180 degrees between the left and the right ear. Swedish spondaic words masked by noise werc presented binaurally to 10 normally hearing subjects. The results are presented in terms of speech detection threshold, speech recognition threshold, a psychometric function of speech recognition versus signal-to-noise ratio, and speech intelligibility as a function of binaural intelligibility level difference.