Speech-in-noise difficulties beyond the audiogram (SiNDBA)

Approximately one out of ten people who present to the clinic reporting speech-in-noise hearing difficulties cannot be helped because they present normal audiometric results, and no standardised approach is available to address their hearing difficulties. NAL research revealed that these hearing difficulties can have serious impacts on mental health, behaviour, and quality of life on the people who suffer them; increasing the risk of social isolation, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, this background research also showed that this problem has a negative impact on the clinicians attending this population, who often report feeling frustrated, confused and disempowered. The aim of this project was to evaluate the value of low-gain hearing aids as a potential intervention for the target population of this study (i.e. individuals with normal audiograms who present abnormal speech-in-noise hearing difficulties). We hypothesized that the directionality provided by hearing aids would provide an acoustic advantage, which would improve their hearing experience in realistic noisy venues.