Efficacy of Hearing Aids in Patients with Hearing Difficulties in Noise: Focus on Hidden Hearing Loss.

Objectives

Hearing aids (HAs) have been used for standard high-frequency hearing loss and tinnitus, but their effects on speech intelligibility in noise (SIN) in people with normal hearing, including hidden hearing loss (HHL), have been little explored.

Methods

We included in a prospective cohort study patients who experience poor SIN and have normal pure tone average in quiet conditions or slight HL. We used open-fit HAs. The FraMatrix test was used to explore SIN. The benefit of HAs in daily situations and for tinnitus was evaluated.

Results

Forty patients were explored, including 12 with HHL. FraMatrix and quality of life improved significantly (p < 0.001) with HAs, especially in those with HHL (2.0 dB SNR of speech recognition threshold improvement). HAs also effectively suppress tinnitus. Participants used HAs 9.9 h per day.

Conclusions

This study shows an improvement of SIN with HAs in patients with slight HL but more importantly in patients with HHL.