Effect of compression release time of a hearing aid on sentence recognition and the quality judgment of speech

Context: The sentence recognition score and quality of speech differ when hearing aid compression is set at different release times at different signal to noise ratios (SNRs) for the normal and compressed rate of sentences. Aims: To investigate the effect of amplitude-compression release time of a hearing aid on sentence recognition and quality judgment: (1) for normal rate and time-compressed sentences (2) in quiet and noisy conditions. Settings and Design: A post-test repeated measures design. Methods and Material: We recruited fifteen adult participants with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in each group, the younger (35-45 years), and the older ones (60-70 years). A gap detection test assessed temporal processing ability. We used three compression settings, fast-acting, slow-acting, and linear. Sentence recognition and quality and envelope difference index in normal and altered rates were assessed in quiet and in noise at these three compression settings. Statistical analysis used: A repeated measure ANOVA. Results: We found a significant improvement in recognition of sentences at a normal rate in slow compression release time, compared to fast and linear gain settings at each SNR. Similar results were observed for sentences compressed at the rate of 35% in quiet and +10 dB SNR. Further, the participants preferred the quality of speech in quiet with the hearing aid set to slow compared to fast compression release time. The benefit from the slow compression release time was higher than either linear or fast compression release time on sentence recognition. Further, we saw that there was a negative impact on sentence recognition at 3 dB SNR (normal-rate) and in quiet (35% compression rate) in older adults. Conclusions: The slow compression release time in a hearing aid is superior to the fast one in noisy conditions and also with higher subjective ratings of speech quality in quiet.