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CompletedNCT03279367Updated Jul 30, 2021

Optimisation of Hearing Aid Fitting

An observational study in Hearing Loss and Hearing Abnormality, sponsored by University of Southampton. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-07-30.

Sponsored by University of Southampton · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
20
Ages
18 Years to 70 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study aims to explore if objective brain responses to speech stimuli (words and running speech) can be used to evaluate hearing aid fitting in adults. Objective brain responses would be beneficial, as they could be used to evaluate hearing with people who are incapable or unwilling to provide subjective responses. The study aims to determine if EEG responses to speech sounds are sensitive to the effects of hearing aids for hearing aid users. Secondary, the study will look into the need for using speech stimuli in order to obtain more robust responses compared to current clinical standards.

Read the detailed description

The research questions addressed are as follows

  1. Are speech-evoked objective brain responses sensitive to hearing aid amplification?
  2. Are speech-evoked brain responses sensitive to distortions in speech and can hearing aid amplification resolve issues with brain responses to distorted speech?
  3. Which tests are optimal for detection of objective brain responses to speech?
  4. Are realistic speech stimuli (words or running speech) able to robustly detect brain responses compared to current clinical standards (clicks and tones)? The study will be carried out on a group of mildly to moderately hearing impaired subjects between the age of 18 and 70. Subjects will be recruited from the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, where the research will be conducted. Participants will have their hearing function and hearing aid fitting checked as described in the design and methodology section of this proposal. During the experiment, participants will be asked to listen to speech sounds presented from a loudspeaker at comfortable listening levels. The responses will be measured with the participant wearing and not wearing hearing aids. Additionally, participants will perform a behavioural task for perception of speech. Participants will be asked to attend 2 sessions of 2 hours. Data collection will run over 1 year.
02

Conditions studied

  • Hearing Loss
  • Hearing Abnormality

Keywords

  • Hearing Loss
  • Hearing Abnormality
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 70 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Subjects will be included if they are between 18 and 70 years old, are native English speakers and have mild to moderate hearing loss in their better ear measured using current clinical standards. They will be identified from their medical records of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust by the Co-Investigators who are trained and qualified clinical audiologists at the Trust. Subjects will be routine hearing aid users.

Inclusion criteria

  • Subjects are between 18 and 70 years old
  • Native English speakers
  • Have mild to moderate hearing loss in their better ear measured using current clinical standards
  • Routine hearing aid users

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Clinical observation indicates the presence of ear infections or an occluded ear canal on the day of testing
  • Subjects with recent ear surgery (within a month before the day of testing)
  • Subjects who are taking substances that could affect brain responses (e.g. medication for the treatment of depression)
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Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
20 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • Hearing Impaired

    Participants will be asked to wear an electro-encephalography (EEG) cap for measurement of brain activity whilst listening to speech stimuli. The speech stimuli will be presented through a loudspeaker positioned 1 meter in front of the participant. Participants will be asked to listen to the speech stimuli when using and without using their hearing aid. They will be asked to pay attention to the speech stimuli. This will be assured by asking them to answer questions related to the speech stimulus at random intervals. Subjects will also go through standard clinical procedures for assessing their hearing function and hearing aid setup.

    Diagnostic Test: Objective speech response detection

Interventions

  • Diagnostic testObjective speech response detection

    Changes in brain activity when a speech stimulus is presented will be measured using electro-encephalography (EEG)

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Objective response detection

    Detection success rate and time for obtaining a brain response to the sound stimuli.

    Time frame: Immediate

Secondary outcomes

  1. Improved statistical test

    Hotelling's T2 test to objectively determine the presence of a response compared to background noise.

    Time frame: Immediate

  2. Stimulus reconstruction

    Correlation test to determine the accuracy of the estimated speech stimulus using the decoder compared to the presented speech stimulus for running speech. Detection of auditory brainstem and auditory steady state potential characteristic peaks and troughs for responses to click and tone stimuli, respectively.

    Time frame: Immediate

06

Study locations

1 site
  • Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
    Reading, Berkshire RG15LE, United Kingdom
07

References and documents

Publications

  • Vanheusden FJ, Kegler M, Ireland K, Georga C, Simpson DM, Reichenbach T, Bell SL. Hearing Aids Do Not Alter Cortical Entrainment to Speech at Audible Levels in Mild-to-Moderately Hearing-Impaired Subjects. Front Hum Neurosci. 2020 Apr 3;14:109. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00109. eCollection 2020. PubMed 32317951 ↗
  • Vanheusden FJ, Chesnaye MA, Simpson DM, Bell SL. Envelope frequency following responses are stronger for high-pass than low-pass filtered vowels. Int J Audiol. 2019 Jun;58(6):355-362. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2018.1562243. Epub 2019 Jan 24. PubMed 30675827 ↗
  • Vanheusden FJ, Bell SL, Chesnaye MA, Simpson DM. Improved Detection of Vowel Envelope Frequency Following Responses Using Hotelling's T2 Analysis. Ear Hear. 2019 Jan/Feb;40(1):116-127. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000598. PubMed 29757799 ↗

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Aug 14, 2017
  • Informed consent form · Aug 15, 2017

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Anonymised data will be collected and stored in Pure/ePrints at the University of Southampton along with a metadata file describing the procedure and providing participant demographics such as age and gender. Anonymised data will also be stored on password-protected University computers and backed up on password-protected hard drives. Anonymised data will be kept available for public access (for research and teaching purposes) under guidelines of the University of Southampton for at least 10 years. Clear information regarding the storage and possible reuse of anonymized data will be given to the participant prior to the experiment. Participants will have the possibility to opt out of this data sharing policy.

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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03279367
Lead sponsor
University of Southampton
Collaborators
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester, Imperial College London, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 12, 2017
Start date
Dec 22, 2017
Primary completion
Sep 1, 2018
Completion
Sep 30, 2018
Last update
Jul 30, 2021

Study contacts

Steven L Bell, Dr
principal investigator · University of Southampton

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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