Hearing Aid Outcomes for Older Adults with Alzheimer's Dementia
This study is looking at how different hearing aid settings affect older adults with hearing loss and Alzheimer's dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Researchers want to see if hearing aids programmed for "high signal manipulation" (more advanced processing) or "low signal manipulation" (simpler processing) work better for these individuals. The study will measure how well participants understand speech and communicate in conversations with each type of hearing aid. You may be able to join if you are between 50 and 90 years old, speak English, have good vision, and have sensorineural hearing loss. The study aims to enroll 20 participants.
- Study design
- This is an interventional study, meaning participants will receive specific treatments. It will involve 20 participants.
- What's involved
- Participants will take an unaided baseline test at the start. Measurements will be repeated at the end of each intervention (3-5 weeks after each hearing aid fitting).
- Compensation
- Not stated in the trial record.
- Follow-up
- Measurements will be taken at the end of each intervention, which is 3-5 weeks after each hearing aid fitting.
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Characterizing Variability in Hearing Aid Outcomes in Among Older Adults With Alzheimer's Dementia
At a glance
Conditions
Where it's being run
2 sites across 1 statesStudy leadership
- Pam Souza, PhD · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · Northwestern University
Who to contact
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What this trial measures
- Change In Speech Intelligibility (%Correct)Change from Baseline to final appointment ineach hearing aid condition will be assessed. Participants will take an unaided baseline at the start of the trial. Measure will be repeated at the end of each intervention (3-5 weeks after each fitting).
Participants will listen to and repeat recorded low-context sentences presented at conversational level at varying levels of background noise. Scoring is determined by percentage of key words in each sentence a participant is able to hear and correctly repeat back to the tester. Scores may range from 0 to 100% and a higher score indicates better understanding (i.e. a better outcome).
- Change in Conversation Analysis of Communication BreakdownChange from Baseline to final appointment in each hearing aid condition will be assessed. Participants will take an unaided baseline at the start of the trial. Measure will be repeated at the end of each intervention (3-5 weeks after each fitting).
Data will be extracted from conversation samples recorded between person with cognitive impairment and caregiver participants during a mealtime. Conversations will be audio recorded, transcribed ortho graphically and annotated for conversation breakdowns and repairs using Trouble-Source-Repair conventions grounded in Conversation Analysis approaches. Units of measure are: 1)Proportion of problematic talk 2) Proportion of trouble sources 3) Proportion of unsuccessful repairs and 4)Proportion of complex repairs. Reductions in all 4 reflect a positive change.