Pilot cap acoustic transparency (Scherer et al., 2023)

Purpose: Consistent hearing device use in young children with hearing loss is challenging for families. A hearing aid accessory, called a pilot cap, is often recommended to families to help mitigate the issues around device retention. Although pilot caps are commonly suggested to families, there is sparse data available about how acoustically transparent they are when used with a hearing aid. The purpose of this study was to measure the acoustic transparency when a hearing aid functions under a pilot cap accessory.Method: The Verifit 2 Hearing Aid Analyzer and the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) were used to measure acoustic transparency related to access of aided speech. Measurements involved four hearing aids that are commonly fit on pediatric patients and four different commercially available pilot caps. SII data were collected at two intensity levels for four simulated sensorineural hearing losses (SNHLs). Response differences between acoustic measurements with a hearing aid plus a pilot cap compared with the hearing aid alone (control) were collected.Results: A total of 80 SII measurements were made. There were 16 SII measurements of the hearing aid alone (control conditions) and 64 SII measurements with combinations of the hearing aids and pilot caps selected for this study. For each hearing aid, there was no significant difference between the SII measurements collected for the hearing aid alone and the hearing aid plus a pilot cap. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the different pilot caps used with each hearing aid tested.Conclusions: Pilot cap use with the four types of hearing aids in this study results in no significant differences in acoustic transparency compared with the control condition. The data in this study support the use of the pilot caps for hearing device retention in children with hearing loss.Supplemental Material S1. Average differences within each frequency band: additional details.Scherer, K., Christianson, E., Wang, X., White, R., & Dunnell, J. (2023). Pilot cap acoustic transparency for pediatric amplification devices. American Journal of Audiology, 32(2), 432–439. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJA-22-00171

目的：对于患有听力损失幼童的家庭来说，确保听力设备的持续使用是一大挑战。通常，家庭会被推荐使用一种称为飞行员帽的助听器附件，以帮助缓解设备保留相关的问题。尽管飞行员帽通常被推荐给家庭，但关于其在助听器配合下声学透明度的数据相对匮乏。本研究旨在测量助听器在飞行员帽附件下的声学透明度。方法：本研究采用了Verifit 2 助听器分析仪和语音清晰度指数（SII）来测量与辅助语音接入相关的声学透明度。测量涉及了四种在儿科患者中常用的助听器和四种不同的商业飞行员帽。针对四种模拟的感音性聋（SNHL）在不同强度水平下收集了SII数据。收集了使用助听器加上飞行员帽与仅使用助听器（对照组）之间的声学测量响应差异。结果：共进行了80次SII测量。其中包括16次仅使用助听器的SII测量（对照组条件）和64次结合了本研究中选择的助听器和飞行员帽的SII测量。对于每种助听器，单独使用助听器与加上飞行员帽的SII测量之间没有显著差异。此外，不同飞行员帽与每种测试的助听器配合使用时也没有显著差异。结论：本研究中四种类型的助听器与飞行员帽的使用在声学透明度上与控制条件相比，没有显著差异。本研究的数据支持在患有听力损失的儿童中使用飞行员帽以保持听力设备的保留。补充材料S1：每个频段内的平均差异：额外细节。Scherer, K., Christianson, E., Wang, X., White, R., & Dunnell, J. (2023). 儿科放大设备的飞行员帽声学透明度。美国听觉学杂志，32(2)，432–439. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJA-22-00171