In order to help reduce hearing loss, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulates noise levels in work environments. However, hearing aids are the primary rehabilitative service provided for individuals with an occupational hearing loss. Very little is being done to monitor hearing aid use in the work environment. Noise which may be safe to an unaided ear can amplified to levels that are damaging to the ear when a hearing aid is being worn. However, it is necessary for some individuals to wear amplification in these noisy environments for safety reasons. As a consequence it is important that these individuals be able to understand speech in the presence of industrial noise while wearing amplification. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in speech intelligibility between linear hearing aids and different types of non-linear hearing aids when they are used in the presence of industrial noise. Twenty-four normal hearing subjects were selected for this study. Each subject was ask to identify words in four CID W-22 lists which had been recorded through a linear hearing aid and two different non-linear hearing aids. Test results showed significantly better word· recognition for the linear in quiet condition over all other conditions. Significantly higher scores were obtained for the TILL condition than were obtained for the Linear in noise and the BILL condition. These preliminary results suggest that an individual wearing amplification in a noisy work environment would benefit with a TILL circuit. The TILL circuit would provide better speech intelligibility in this type of environment. Therefore, providing a safer work environment for the hearing aid user.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-6239 |
| Date | 10 July 1996 |
| Creators | Olson, Marcia Ann |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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