HINT Brazil: a study in patients with hearing loss

Author(s)

Aline de Moraes Arieta

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
• Defense date: 2013-02-22

Examining board members

Everardo Andrade da Costa; Carlos Roberto Silveira Corrêa; Eliane Schochat; Maria Francisca Colella Santos; Liliane Desgualdo Pereira

• Advisor: Everardo Andrade da Costa; Christiane Marques do Couto

Abstract

The investigation to recognize speech in day-to-day conditions becomes increasingly necessary. Currently, on the national routine audiological, this evaluation is still performed without noise, limiting the information about the performance of individuals in real-life conditions. This problem is aggravated on sensorineural hearing loss, which has high prevalence in society. The purpose of this research is to evaluate speech recognition with and without noise in different population groups, using the HINT Brazil (Hearing in Noise Test - Portuguese version of Brazil). A total of 268 people, 180 males and 78 females were evaluated: 66 normal hearing, 70 normal hearing individuals with a history of occupational noise exposure, 80 with sensorineural hearing loss, with a history of occupational noise exposure and 52 users hearing aids. The HINT Brazil was applied, with headphones and soundfield on conditions: quiet (Q); Noise Front (NF) Noise Right (NR); Noise Left (NL). Additionally, the program provides an average of the noise conditions called Noise Composed (NC). The results were calculated on dB (A) with no noise conditions and dB Signal to Noise Ratio (S/R) in noisy conditions. On the tests with noise, the values obtained in soundfield were worse than the ones with headphones. The normal hearing group exposed to occupation noise presents worse performance with the HINT Brazil, in the condition RC, comparing to the ones not exposed. The sensoneural hearing loss group presented worse performance in all the conditions of the HINT Brazil comparing to the normal hearing with and without exposure. On the hearing aid users group, the HINT performance was better using the hearing aids (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/10360-6 - APPLICATIONS OF THE ONE TEST OF SPEECH PERCEPTION IN NOISE (HINT BRAZIL) IN NORMAL LISTENERS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH AUDITORY LOSSES
• Grantee: Aline de Moraes Arieta
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate