Evaluating AirPod Pro and Other Devices for Adults with Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss Comparing Hearing Aids, AirPod Pro, and Wireless Microphones in Noisy Settings

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of the AirPod Pro 2nd and 3rd generation as hearing assistive technology for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. The study compares four types of assistive devices hearing aids, AirPod Pros, dedicated wireless remote microphones, and smartphone wireless remote microphones. The main focus is to determine which device offers the greatest benefit for speech recognition in noisy environments, how they affect listening effort, and participants preferences for ease of understanding and satisfaction. Participants will undergo a pure-tone hearing test to confirm eligibility, followed by fitting and programming of the AirPod Pros and hearing aids according to individual hearing loss. The study involves measuring speech recognition thresholds using adaptive noise levels, completing dual-task activities to assess listening effort with each device, and capturing pupil diameter changes as an objective measure of listening effort. These tasks are conducted in a single 3-hour lab session where each device is tested. During the session, participants will listen to sentences with each device and repeat what they hear while their reaction times and pupil sizes are recorded. They will also complete questionnaires rating the difficulty of understanding speech and their preferences for each device. The researchers will measure speech recognition thresholds, reaction times, pupil diameters, and subjective satisfaction immediately after using each assistive technology to understand their relative benefits in noisy settings.

Use of Airpod Pros as Assistive Technology