Objective: To examine the benefits of home-delivered auditory training for adult hearing aid users using live-voice conversations in the presence of a single-talker distractor (experimental group) or in quiet (active-control group).
Design: Randomised controlled trial. The experimental group held conversations with their nominated communication partner in the presence of a single-talker distractor set to a challenging level, 30 min/day, 5 days/week over 4 weeks. The active-control group held comparable conversations in quiet. Behavioural outcome measures of speech-in-noise perception, cognition and self-reported hearing difficulties were assessed pre- and post-training. Participant feedback was obtained.
Study sample: Thirty-nine hearing aid users (32 males, 7 females, mean age = 73.02 years, SD = 4.71 years) and their communication partners.
Results: The experimental group significantly improved and outperformed the active-control group for words-in-noise perception. Both groups achieved improvements in self-reported hearing difficulty while only the experimental group improved on dual-task. Subjectively, both groups found live-voice conversations beneficial and reported increased concentration and listening skills.
Conclusions: Home-delivered live-voice auditory training with communication partners shows potential to improve outcomes for adult hearing aid users, regardless of the presence or absence of a competing speech distractor. Further research is required to assess mechanisms of benefit and distractor effects within carefully controlled experiments.
Keywords: Auditory training; cognition; hearing aids; speech perception.