A multicentre study evaluating the effects of the Swedish ACE programme.

Objective: This study investigated the effects of a modified Swedish version of an interactive group education programme, the Active Communication Education (ACE) programme, in five Swedish regions. This study also explored whether the pre- and post-programme outcomes differed with regard to region, age, gender, hearing loss (HL) or the attendance of significant others (SOs).

Design: An intervention study with between- and within-group measurements was applied.

Speech-language pathologists' preferences for patient-centeredness.

Purpose: Preferences for patient-centeredness is an important indicator in healthcare service delivery. However, it remains largely unexplored in the field of communication science and disorders. This study investigated speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) preferences for patient-centeredness METHOD: The study involved a cross-sectional survey design.

Cochlear implant effectiveness in postlingual single-sided deaf individuals: what's the point?

Objectives: By extending the indication criteria for cochlear implants (CI), the population of CI candidates increased in age, as well as range and type of hearing loss. This qualitative study identified factors that contributed to seek CI treatment in single-sided deaf individuals and gained insights how single-sided deafness (SSD) and hearing with a CI affect their lives.

Design: An open-ended questionnaire and a standardised inventory (IOI-HA) were used.

Internet-based peer support for Ménière's disease: a summary of web-based data collection, impact evaluation, and user evaluation.

Objective: This paper presents a summary of web-based data collection, impact evaluation, and user evaluations of an Internet-based peer support program for Ménière's disease (MD).

Design: The program is written in html-form. The data are stored in a MySQL database and uses machine learning in the diagnosis of MD.

Impact of stimulus-related factors and hearing impairment on listening effort as indicated by pupil dilation.

Previous research has reported effects of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on listening effort, as indicated by the peak pupil dilation (PPD) relative to baseline during speech recognition. At about 50% correct sentence recognition performance, increasing SNRs generally results in declining PPDs, indicating reduced effort. However, the decline in PPD over SNRs has been observed to be less pronounced for hearing-impaired (HI) compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners.

Social Representation of "Loud Music" in Young Adults: A Cross-Cultural Study.

Background: Exposure to recreational noise, particularly music exposure, is considered one of the biggest public health hazards of our time. Some important influencing factors such as socioeconomic status, educational background, and cross-cultural perspectives have previously been found to be associated with attitudes toward loud music and the use of hearing protection. Although culture seems to play an important role, there is relatively little known about how it influences perceptions regarding loud music exposure in young adults.

Applications of direct-to-consumer hearing devices for adults with hearing loss: a review.

Background: This systematic literature review is aimed at investigating applications of direct-to-consumer hearing devices for adults with hearing loss. This review discusses three categories of direct-to-consumer hearing devices: 1) personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), 2) direct-mail hearing aids, and 3) over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids.

Method: A literature review was conducted using EBSCOhost and included the databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO.

Vestibular syncope: A disorder associated with drop attack in Ménière's disease.

Objective: Experiments in humans and animals indicate that vestibular influx through vestibular sympathetic reflex is an important and vital part of the regulatory system of circulation. The otolith organ adjusts the circulatory responses through the vestibular sympathetic reflex during an upright stance and may trigger a vasovagal attack of syncope. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence and association of syncope attacks among patients with Ménière's disease (MD).

Effects of Hearing Impairment and Hearing Aid Amplification on Listening Effort: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: To undertake a systematic review of available evidence on the effect of hearing impairment and hearing aid amplification on listening effort. Two research questions were addressed: Q1) does hearing impairment affect listening effort? and Q2) can hearing aid amplification affect listening effort during speech comprehension?

Design: English language articles were identified through systematic searches in PubMed, EMBASE, Cinahl, the Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO from inception to August 2014. References of eligible studies were checked.

An Exploratory Study Identifying a Possible Response Shift Phenomena of the .

A then-test technique was used to investigate the possibility of a response shift in the (GHABP). Following completion of part 1 of the GHABP, 16 adults were invited for hearing-aid follow up appointments. In accordance with then-test technique, participants were asked to think back to before they had their hearing-aids fitted and the GHABP part 1 was completed again to re-establish the disability and handicap scores.

Preference to Patient-Centeredness in Undergraduate Audiology Students in Portugal.

Background: In health care, the model of patient-centered care is growing; and improved outcomes have been linked to patient-centeredness. Practicing audiologists have been found to strongly prefer a patient-centered approach as years in practice increase. It is unknown whether patient-centeredness begins during education and training.

Spectrotemporal Modulation Sensitivity as a Predictor of Speech-Reception Performance in Noise With Hearing Aids.

The audiogram predicts <30% of the variance in speech-reception thresholds (SRTs) for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners fitted with individualized frequency-dependent gain. The remaining variance could reflect suprathreshold distortion in the auditory pathways or nonauditory factors such as cognitive processing. The relationship between a measure of suprathreshold auditory function-spectrotemporal modulation (STM) sensitivity-and SRTs in noise was examined for 154 HI listeners fitted with individualized frequency-specific gain.

Preferences to Patient-Centeredness in Pre-Service Speech and Hearing Sciences Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background And Objectives: Patient-centeredness is a critical approach to rehabilitation in allied health professions and is an imperative component of evidence-based practice. However, it is unknown if patient-centeredness is valued by students enrolled in allied health. This study was aimed at determining preferences to patient-centeredness in pre-service speech and hearing students in the field of speech and hearing sciences.

Social representation of "music" in young adults: a cross-cultural study.

Objective: This study was aimed to explore perceptions of and reactions to music in young adults (18-25 years) using the theory of social representations (TSR).

Design: The study used a cross-sectional survey design and included participants from India, Iran, Portugal, USA and UK. Data were analysed using various qualitative and quantitative methods.

Support Persons' Perceptions of Giving Vocational Rehabilitation Support to Clients With Acquired Brain Injury in Sweden.

The aim of this article is to explore the perception of being a support person for clients with acquired brain injury undergoing vocational rehabilitation. Nine support persons, identified by clients with brain injury, were interviewed. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, resulting in 3 themes for assisting the client: commitment, adaptation, and cooperation.

Cortisol, Chromogranin A, and Pupillary Responses Evoked by Speech Recognition Tasks in Normally Hearing and Hard-of-Hearing Listeners: A Pilot Study.

Pupillometry is one method that has been used to measure processing load expended during speech understanding. Notably, speech perception (in noise) tasks can evoke a pupil response. It is not known if there is concurrent activation of the sympathetic nervous system as indexed by salivary cortisol and chromogranin A (CgA) and whether such activation differs between normally hearing (NH) and hard-of-hearing (HH) adults.

Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment.

Context: Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.

Objectives: To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2) review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3) seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex.

Developmental delays in phonological recoding among children and adolescents with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome.

This study examined the development of phonological recoding in short-term memory (STM) span tasks among two clinical groups with contrasting STM and language profiles: those with Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS). Phonological recoding was assessed by comparing: (1) performance on phonologically similar and dissimilar items (phonological similarity effects, PSE); and (2) items with short and long names (word length effects, WLE). Participant groups included children and adolescents with DS (n=29), WS (n=25) and typical development (n=51), all with average mental ages around 6 years.

Children with autism respond differently to spontaneous, elicited and deferred imitation.

Background: Imitation, a key vehicle for both cognitive and social development, is often regarded as more difficult for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than for children with Down syndrome (DS) or typically developing (TD) children. The current study investigates similarities and differences in observed elicited, spontaneous and deferred imitation using both actions with objects and gestures as imitation tasks in these groups.

Methods: Imitation among 19 children with autism was compared with 20 children with DS and 23 TD children matched for mental and language age.

Validation of the Swedish Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (Screening Version) and Evaluation of Its Effect in Hearing Aid Rehabilitation.

Self-reports of subjective hearing difficulties by people with hearing loss may be a useful complement to audiometry in hearing aid rehabilitation. To be useful, such self-reports need to be reliable. This study investigated the reliability and the validity of the Swedish Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (Screening Version; HHIE-S).