2025/06/25 by Schulte, Michael, Heeren, Jan, Lesimple, Christophe +1
#Medicine and health
paper · doi:10.3205/zaud000068
The perception of speech at low levels below 55 dB(A) has not yet received much attention in the scientific literature. However, hearing-impaired people in particular have difficulty understanding what is being said when the target speech is soft. In this study, two typical soft-speech situations were investigated: One with speech from different distances and reverberation, and a second scenario with speech from a neighboring room. A total of 20 subjects with mild to moderate hearing loss participated in the study. Speech intelligibility, loudness and listening effort were measured. The hearing aids were fitted with two programs, one with a feature that provided additional gain to soft speech and one without this feature. The results clearly show that soft speech situations are challenging for hearing-impaired people, also with hearing aids. The additional gain significantly improved measured and perceived speech intelligibility, as well as subjective ratings of listening effort. Overall, this study emphasizes the need to consider soft speech situations more in the treatment of hearing loss.