Measuring listening effort and fatigue in hearing impaired individuals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding hearing disability: Measuring listening effort and fatigue in people with hearing impairment.
IRAS ID
170015
Contact name
Sara Alhanbali
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
People with hearing impairment often report that listening is very effortful and tiring, particularly in noisy environments.
Understanding listening effort and fatigue is critical to understanding disability associated with hearing loss. Measures of listening effort and fatigue could be used to optimise hearing aid technology to reduce listening effort and fatigue for people with hearing impairment.
Recent research has attempted to measure listening effort and fatigue. However, it is not certain i) how prevalent or severe listening effort/fatigue is within subgroups of people with hearing impairment compared to the general population and ii) what are reliable measures of listening effort/fatigue.
The present study has two phases. The aim of the first phase of this study is to describe the prevalence of listening effort and fatigue in subgroups of people with hearing impairment, including school-aged and older listeners with different degrees of hearing loss compared to the general population. Listening effort/fatigue will be assessed via self-report scales of effort and fatigue.
In the second phase, a range of lab based measures of listening effort and fatigue will be trialled. Participants will perform a listening task while physiological recordings of effort and fatigue are made. An example of physiological measure is perspiration levels, which are linked to the mental effort of listening. The aim is to identify which measures are reliable indices of listening effort and fatigue. These measures could then be used to assess the impact of treatment options in reducing listening effort/fatigue for people with hearing impairment.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0113
Date of REC Opinion
5 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion