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Introduction to the Special Issue: Select Papers From the Hearing Across the Lifespan (HEAL) 2018 Conference

2019; American Speech–Language–Hearing Association; Volume: 28; Issue: 3S Linguagem: Inglês

10.1044/2019_aja-heal18-19-0088

1558-9137

Gabriella Tognola, Sophia E. Kramer, Larry E. Humes, F. Grandori,

Noise Effects and Management

You have accessAmerican Journal of AudiologyIntroduction16 Oct 2019Introduction to the Special Issue: Select Papers From the Hearing Across the Lifespan (HEAL) 2018 Conference Gabriella Tognola, Sophia E. Kramer, Larry E. Humes and Ferdinando Grandori Gabriella Tognola Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell'Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni (IEIIT-CNR), Milan, Italy Google Scholar More articles by this author , Sophia E. Kramer Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Ear & Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health, the Netherlands Google Scholar More articles by this author , Larry E. Humes Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington Google Scholar More articles by this author and Ferdinando Grandori Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell'Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni (IEIIT-CNR), Milan, Italy Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-19-0088 SectionsAboutAbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In This special issue is dedicated to the international conference, Hearing Across the Lifespan (HEAL 2018), held June 7–9, 2018, in the Villa Erba Congress Center on Lake Como (Italy). This scientific initiative, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary, once again hosted around 450 hearing experts representing nearly 50 countries from across the planet (just over half of delegates came from the United States). These meetings date back to the Milan 1998 European Consensus Development Conference on Neonatal Hearing Screening (Grandori & Lutman, 1999), a meeting that inspired a selected group of experts in various disciplines (audiologists; neonatologists; ear, nose, and throat doctors [ENTs]; hearing care providers) to meet periodically to witness the advances in research on hearing and promote improvement of hearing care, initially on infants, and later (since 2010) on adults and the elderly (Grandori & Hayes, 2017). The approximately 300 communications of the 2018 conference covered a wide variety of topics, from fundamental research on mechanisms of hearing and hearing dysfunctions, to developments in hearing devices, instrumentation for diagnosis, and patient management; from correlations between hearing loss and cognitive decline and dementia, as well as state-of-the-art eHealth applications, to improvement in protocols and parent and public health perspectives. This special issue includes a number of papers selected from the HEAL 2018 communications that addressed very timely topics, such as the evaluation of hearing performance in real life (Brown, Mahomed-Asmail, De Sousa, & Swanepoel, 2019; Fletcher, McAuliffe, Kerr, & Sinex, 2019; Humes, 2019; Tangkhpanya, Le Carrour, Doucet, & Gagne, 2019), the impact of hearing rehabilitation on restoring cognitive function (Anzivino et al., 2019), and evidence for factors predicting hearing aid (HA) purchase (Pronk, Meijerink, Kramer, Heymans, & Besser, 2019) or the benefit of bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) versus bimodal hearing (Au & Dowell, 2019). Finally, this issue reports novel clinical applications and normative data for a classical neurophysiological test (Ferraro, Kileny, & Grasel, 2019) and a self-report outcomes measures in audiology (Cassarly, Matthews, Simpson, & Dubno, 2019). The issue concludes with the application of eHealth technology for supporting the clinical management of older CI users (Tognola, Murri, & Cuda, 2019). Below are brief summaries of the articles of this special issue. Humes (2019) presents a refreshing perspective on the long-standing World Health Organization (WHO) hearing impairment grading system (WHO-HI). The original grading system is based on expert opinion only. Humes evaluated the validity of this system using data from five large-population and clinical studies, including self-report measures, pure-tone hearing thresholds, and some type of functional assessment of communication. Based on his results, Humes proposes a new grading system, and he questions the validity of pure-tone audiometry as the only metric for the assessment of someone's functioning with hearing loss. He advocates for the use of self-report to assess impaired communication, as pure-tone audiometry may not be reflective of the associated impact on a person's activity limitations or restrictions placed on their real-life societal participation—two key components of the WHO 2001 model. The issue of pure-tone audiometry being a measure with limitations when it comes to reflecting real-life communication was also raised by Brown and colleagues (2019). They present further progress in the applicability of the self-administered digits-in-noise (DIN) screening test using a smartphone platform coupled to various sound-field transducers (earphones, smartphone speakers, external loudspeakers). Test–retest reliability analyses across sound-field conditions and transducers yielded promising results: The smartphone DIN test is reliable and can be used for screening and rehabilitation purposes. The authors indicate that this result is particularly relevant for the continent of Africa. The smartphone DIN test is a reliable and affordable option to be used in low- and middle-income countries, allowing for an accessible hearing screening solution. Speech processing in noise is also central in the study by Tangkhpanya et al. (2019). An interesting aspect of this study is the use of audiovisual recordings of speech material: 12-min documentaries uttered by a speaker whose face (frontal view of shoulders and head) was also visible. The authors created such a condition because it resembles a real-life conversation situation. Each documentary was followed by 15 questions. The research question was whether audiovisual speech comprehension would be more effortful for older than for younger listeners. A dual-task paradigm with tactile detection as a secondary task was used to assess listening effort. Three groups were compared: (1) young normal-hearing adults, (2) young normal-hearing adults listening to speech material low-pass filtered with a cutoff of 3 kHz, and (3) older adults with age-adjusted normal hearing. Surprisingly, the older listeners outperformed the second group and did as well as the young normal-hearing group. Why did they deploy less effort than the younger participants listening to the low-pass filtered speech task? The authors provide some suggestions in their report. Fletcher et al. (2019) examine the speech-recognition performance of young normal-hearing adults listening to speech in noise. They examined several cognitive and linguistic variables as potential predictors of performance, observing the strongest effects for vocabulary knowledge and working memory among those cognitive–linguistic measures examined. This was especially true at the more moderate signal-to-noise ratios among those examined. As expected, word frequency and phonetic content also affected performance, and these effects were apparent across all signal-to-noise ratios. Anzivino and colleagues (2019) explore how hearing rehabilitation through HAs or CIs could benefit cognitive functions in the long term. They evaluated audiological and neuropsychological function and quality of life in a cohort of bilaterally deaf older patients over a period of 12 months after cochlear implantation or HA fitting. The study reveals that speech recognition in quiet and in noise improved after 6 months of amplification use. This improvement paralleled the observed significant amelioration of short- and long-term memory performances and of executive and attentive functions, thus suggesting that acoustic rehabilitation may have a positive impact on cognitive decline. Pronk et al. (2019) describe a prospective study with older adults in which data gathered prior to the participant's decision to try HAs is used to predict the likelihood that the patient will purchase HAs. Only the severity of pure-tone hearing loss emerged as a significant predictor, but it was a weak predictor. The authors suggest that better insights into the likelihood of HA purchase can be gained through examination of measures obtained during the HA evaluation period, rather than prior to this. Au and Dowell (2019) address the potential benefit between bilateral CIs and bimodal hearing. To this purpose, the authors evaluate speech perception in a cohort of more than 1,300 adults with unilateral and bilateral CIs and bimodal hearing to provide evidence-based recommendations for those considering a second CI. The results suggest bimodal users who scored less than 19% on consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) word recognition in quiet in the nonimplanted ear would benefit more from a second CI. Nevertheless, other factors including the subject age, medical conditions, and residual hearing play an important role in recommending bilateral CIs. Ferraro, Kileny, and Grasel (2019) illustrate two novel clinical applications of electrocochleography (ECochG). First, they demonstrate how ECochG could be helpful not only in diagnosing but also in predicting Ménière's disease in asymptomatic but genetically predisposed patients. Second, they provide evidence on how ECochG could be useful in the diagnosis of superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SCCD) and for monitoring its repair during surgery. The authors finally provide normative data of ECochG based on noninvasive tympanic membrane recordings. Cassarly and colleagues (2019) provide a concise review of nonparametric item response theory and its potential application in self-report outcome measures in audiology. They then illustrate the application of this tool through an evaluation of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE)—probably the self-report measure used most often with older adults—and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults. Finally, Tognola, Murri, and Cuda (2019) describe an accurate and very efficient (20 s/report) automated cognitive-computing approach to the extraction of relevant information from narrative medical reports for older adults receiving CIs. Extraction of similar information from these same reports manually typically required 20–30 min and limited the likelihood of clinical researchers attempting to do so. References Anzivino, R., Conti, G., Di Nardo, W., Fetoni, A. R., Picciotti, P. M., Marra, C., … Berrettini, S. (2019). Prospective evaluation of cognitive functions after rehabilitation with cochlear implant or hearing aids: Preliminary results of a multicentric study on elderly patients. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 762–774. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0176 LinkGoogle Scholar Au, A., & Dowell, R. C. (2019). Evidence-based recommendation for bilateral cochlear implantation in adults. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 775–782. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0183 LinkGoogle Scholar Brown, L., Mahomed-Asmail, F., De Sousa, K. C., & Swanepoel, D. W. (2019). Performance and reliability of a smartphone digits-in-noise test in the sound field. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 736–741. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0161 LinkGoogle Scholar Cassarly, C., Matthews, L. J., Simpson, A. N., & Dubno, J. R. (2019). Development and refinement of patient-reported outcomes for hearing: A brief introduction to nonparametric item response theory. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 806–809. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJA-HEAL18-18-0167 LinkGoogle Scholar Ferraro, J. A., Kileny, P. R., & Grasel, S. S. (2019). Electrocochleography: New uses for an old test and normative values. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 783–795. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0190 LinkGoogle Scholar Fletcher, A., McAuliffe, M., Kerr, S., & Sinex, D. (2019). Effects of vocabulary and implicit linguistic knowledge on speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 742–755. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0169 LinkGoogle Scholar Grandori, F., & Hayes, D. (2017). Reflections on Lake Como Conferences (2000–2016). American Journal of Audiology, 26, 467–468. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJA-17-0062 LinkGoogle Scholar Grandori, F., & Lutman, M. (1999). The European Consensus Development Conference on Neonatal Hearing Screening (Milan, May 15–16, 1998). American Journal of Audiology, 8, 19–20. https://doi.org/10.1044/1059-0889(1999/004) LinkGoogle Scholar Humes, L. E. (2019). Examining the validity of the World Health Organization's long-standing hearing impairment grading system for unaided communication in age-related hearing loss. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 810–818. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJA-HEAL18-18-0155 LinkGoogle Scholar Pronk, M., Meijerink, J. F. J., Kramer, S. E., Heymans, M. W., & Besser, J. (2019). Predictors of purchasing a hearing aid after an evaluation period: A prospective study in Dutch older hearing aid candidates. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 802–805. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0163 LinkGoogle Scholar Tangkhpanya, F., Le Carrour, M., Doucet, F., & Gagné, J.-P. (2019). The effort required to comprehend a short documentary in noise: A comparison of younger and older francophones. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 756–761. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0170 LinkGoogle Scholar Tognola, G., Murri, A., & Cuda, D. (2019). An application of eHealth technology toward the digitization of the health records of older patients with cochlear implants. American Journal of Audiology, 28, 796–901. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJA-HEAL18-18-0157 LinkGoogle Scholar Author Notes Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time of publication. Correspondence to Gabriella Tognola: [email protected] Editor-in-Chief: Sumitrajit Dhar Publisher Note: This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers From the Hearing Across the Lifespan (HEAL) 2018 Conference. Additional Resources FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 28Issue 3SOctober 2019Pages: 733-735 HistoryReceived: Jul 31, 2019Accepted: Aug 1, 2019 Published online: Oct 16, 2019 Published in issue: Oct 16, 2019PubMed ID: 31618070 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library Metrics Downloaded 995 times Topicsasha-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2019 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...