Objective: To develop a self-report tinnitus handicap measure that is brief, easy to administer and interpret, broad in scope, and psychometrically robust. Design: A standardization study of a self-report tinnitus handicap measure was conducted to determine its internal consistency reliability and convergent and construct validity. Setting: Audiology clinics in tertiary care centers in two sites. Participants: In the first investigation, 84 patients reporting tinnitus as their primary complaint or secondary to hearing loss completed the 45-item alpha version of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). In the second investigation, 66 subjects also reporting tinnitus completed the 25-item beta version. Outcome Measures: Convergent validity was assessed using another measure of perceived tinnitus handicap (Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaire). Construct validity was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire, symptom rating scales (annoyance, sleep disruption, depression, and concentration), and perceived tinnitus pitch and loudness judgments. Results: From the alpha version of the THI, we derived a 25-item beta version with the items grouped into functional, emotional, and catastrophic subscales. The total scale yielded excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha=.93). No significant age or gender effects were seen. Weak correlations were observed between the THI and the Beck Depression Inventory, Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire, and pitch and loudness judgments. Significant correlations were found between the THI and the symptom rating scales. Conclusion: The THI is a self-report measure that can be used in a busy clinical practice to quantify the impact of tinnitus on daily living. (Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1996;122:143-148)

Development of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) is designed to measure a range of hearing disabilities across several domains. Particular attention is given to hearing speech in a variety ...

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The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

ObjectiveTo develop and evaluate a shortened version of the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit, to be called the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit, or APHAB.DesignThe Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (PHAB) is a 66-item self-assessment, disability-based inventory that can be used to document the

The Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit

This paper summarizes twenty studies, published since 1989, that have measured experimentally the relationship between speech recognition in noise and some aspect of cognition, using statistical techniques such as correlation or factor analysis. The results demonstrate that there is a link, but it is secondary to the predictive effects of hearing loss, and it is somewhat mixed across study. No one cognitive test always gave a significant result, but measures of working memory (especially reading span) were mostly effective, whereas measures of general ability, such as IQ, were mostly ineffective. Some of the studies included aided listening, and two reported the benefits from aided listening: again mixed results were found, and in some circumstances cognition was a useful predictor of hearing-aid benefit.

Are individual differences in speech reception related to individual differences in cognitive ability? A survey of twenty experimental studies with normal and hearing-impaired adults

Objective To develop and evaluate a shortened version of the Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit, to be called the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit, or APHAB. Design The Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (PHAB) is a 66-item self-assessment, disability-based inventory that can be used to document the outcome of a hearing aid fitting, to compare several fittings, or to evaluate the same fitting over time. Data from 128 completed PHABs were used to select items for the Abbreviated PHAB. AU subjects were elderly hearing-impaired who wore conventional analog hearing aids. Statistics of score distributions and psychometric properties of each of the APHAB sub-scales were determined. Data from 27 similar subjects were used to examine the test-retest properties of the instrument. Finally, equal-percentile profiles were generated for unaided, aided and benefit scores obtained from successful wearers of linear hearing aids. Results The APHAB uses a subset of 24 of the 66 items from the PHAB, scored in four 6-item sub-scales. Three of the subscales, Ease of Communication, Reverberation, and Background Noise address speech understanding in various everyday environments. The fourth subscale, Aversiveness of Sounds, quantifies negative reactions to environmental sounds. The APHAB typically requires 10 minutes or less to complete, and it produces scores for unaided and aided performance as well as hearing aid benefit. Test-retest correlation coefficients were found to be moderate to high and similar to those reported in the literature for other scales of similar content and length. Critical differences for each subscale taken individually were judged to be fairly large, however, smaller differences between two tests from the same individual can be significant if the three speech communication subscales are considered jointly. Conclusions The APHAB is a potentially valuable clinical instrument. It can be useful for quantifying the disability associated with a hearing loss and the reduction of disability that is achieved with a hearing aid.

Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit

This paper describes the first phase in the development of the Connected Speech Test (CST). This test of intelligibility of everyday speech has been developed primarily for use as a criterion measure in investigations of hearing aid benefit. The test consists of 48 passages of conversationally produ

Development of the Connected Speech Test (CST).

This paper reports the development of the Profile of Hearing Aid Performance (PHAP), a 66-item self-administered inventory that quantifies performance with a hearing aid in everyday life using both...

Development of the Profile of Hearing Aid Performance (PHAP).

Two studies were performed in which hearing-impaired subjects responded to the Connected Speech Test (CST). In experiment 1, 40 subjects, divided into four groups according to extent and configuration of hearing loss, responded to the CST version 1 (CSTv1). This version of the test consisted of 57 passages of connected speech: 48 test passages and 9 practice passages. It was developed on the basis of data for normal-hearing listeners. Performance of hearing-impaired listeners for the CSTv1 revealed that, although the passages were equal in average intelligibility for normal hearers, they were not equally intelligible for hearing-impaired persons. Based on results of data analyses, the 57 passages were reconstituted into 28 pairs of passages: 24 test pairs and 4 practice pairs. The pairs were equal in average intelligibility for both normal and hearing-impaired listeners. This form of the test was named the CST version 2 (CSTv2). In experiment 2, an additional 23 hearing-impaired subjects responded to the CSTv2. Critical differences and the slope of the signal to babble ratio (SBR) function were determined for the CSTv2 for hearing-impaired listeners. When two CSTv2 pairs were used per score, the 95% critical difference for hearing-impaired subjects was about 15.5 rationalized arcsine units (rau). The mean SBR function slope for hearing-impaired listeners was 8.5 rau/dB. Comparing the critical difference with the SBR function slope, it may be seen that, for hearing-impaired listeners, differences in intelligibility equivalent to a 2 dB change in SBR can be detected with CST scores based on mean performance across two passage pairs.

Use of the Connected Speech Test (CST) with hearing-impaired listeners.

Intelligibility of conversationally produced speech for normal hearing listeners was studied for three male and three female talkers. Four typical listening environments were used. These simulated a quiet living room, a classroom, and social events in two settings with different reverberation characteristics. For each talker, overall intelligibility and intelligibility for vowels, consonant voicing, consonant continuance, and consonant place were quantified using the speech pattern contrast (SPAC) test. Results indicated that significant intelligibility differences are observed among normal talkers even in listening environments that permit essentially full intelligibility for everyday conversations. On the whole, talkers maintained their relative intelligibility across the four environments, although there was one exception which suggested that some voices may be particularly susceptible to degradation due to reverberation. Consonant place was the most poorly perceived feature, followed by continuance, voicing, and vowel intelligibility. However, there were numerous significant interactions between talkers and speech features, indicating that a talker of average overall intelligibility may produce certain speech features with intelligibility that is considerably higher or lower than average. Neither long‐term rms speech spectrum nor articulation rate was found to be an adequate single criterion for selecting a talker of average intelligibility. Ultimately, an average talker was chosen on the basis of four speech contrasts: initial consonant place, and final consonant place, voicing, and continuance.

Intelligibility of average talkers in typical listening environments

Frequency-importance and transfer functions for the Auditec of St. Louis recordings of the NU-6 word test are reported. The functions were derived from the word recognition scores of 24 subjects wi...

Christine Gilmore

Papers

Development of the Connected Speech Test (CST).

Development of the Profile of Hearing Aid Performance (PHAP).

Use of the Connected Speech Test (CST) with hearing-impaired listeners.

Intelligibility of average talkers in typical listening environments

Frequency-importance and transfer functions for the Auditec of St. Louis recordings of the NU-6 word test.