Speech Perception in Silence Situation of Hearing Aid Users with Nonlinear Frequency Compression Algorithm

Introduction: The main complaint of the elderly population with high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss is related to the difficulty in understanding speech both in quiet and noise environment. The nonlinear compression frequency algorithm came to solve this problem.

Objective: This study aims to compare the perception and performance of elderly in relation to the activation of nonlinear compression frequency during the process of selection of hearing aids, in a quiet environment.

Patients and Method: The study included 46 elderly patients with sensorineural hearing loss from mild-to-moderate degrees with descendant configuration. The test lists of sentences in Portuguese were applied aiming to get the threshold sentence recognition in quiet. Also, the questionnaire was developed for this purpose. The speech test was applied twice: using hearing aids with and without nonlinear compression frequency. After each review, the questionnaire was applied.

Results: Although there was no statistical significance, most subjects (26) did not detect differences in speech understanding in quiet after the activation of nonlinear compression frequency. However, the results obtained during the search of threshold sentence recognition in quiet, revealed that the majority of subjects (24) showed a better performance in the test, after activation of the algorithm.

Conclusion: The nonlinear compression frequency algorithm improved the performance of elderly in speech recognition in quiet situation, despite this advantage it was not immediately perceived by these subjects.