A comparative evaluation of four hearing aid selection procedures. I--Speech discrimination measures of benefit.

Speech discrimination measures of the benefit provided by four different hearing-aid selection procedures were determined on a group of experienced hearing-aid users. The results revealed that the advantages of prescriptive methods of selection (specifically the procedures of Berger et al., and of Byrne and Tonisson) over intuitive fitting (using an experience clinician) or 'fixed' selection (+ 6 dB/octave frequency response slope) are substantial in some circumstances. The effect of selection procedure on benefit was little influenced by degree of hearing loss but considerably influenced by configuration of loss (flat, sloping or irregular). For patients with gently to steeply sloping losses, the prescriptive methods of selection were shown to provide more benefit than the other methods studied.