Active clinical trials for "Hearing Loss"

The purpose of this study is to compare two different ways of helping first-time hearing-aid users get the most out of their hearing aids and determine if one method is better than the other. One method provides the patient with routine information regarding the care and use of hearing aids the other method uses tools to address patient-specific barriers against and motivators for hearing-aid use.

There is a strong connection between hearing loss and cognitive impairment, particularly dementia, in old age. Worldwide, dementia affects approximately 5% of persons over the age of 65 years. Hearing loss is even more prevalent in old age, affecting an estimated one third of persons over the age of 65 years. Thus, there is likely a large degree of overlap between the impairments. Indeed, this overlap may influence older adults' everyday functioning, communication, social engagement and quality of life, as well as influencing the well-being of their family caregivers. This project will examine whether patients with hearing loss and Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, derive benefit the from hearing aids prescribed and fit to them following current best practice procedures in a geriatric audiology clinic. For the first time, a formal evaluation of the potential benefits of hearing aids for the patients' family caregivers will also be conducted.

Hearing loss is one of the most common health concerns affecting 1 in 3 Americans over 60 years of age rising to 1 in 2 for those over 85 years old. Contributions to hearing abilities provided by cognitive and memory processes are universally recognized as essential to adequate speech communication, but these processes are not well understood. Cognitive limitations in the ability to rapidly process sequential sounds occur with all listeners but may have more impact on older Veterans with and without hearing impairment. The purpose of this study is to examine and more thoroughly characterize the change in auditory working memory with hearing loss and increasing age. Young and older listeners with and without hearing loss will listen and report on two target sounds embedded in a stream of rapidly occurring sound. The investigators expect that older listeners without hearing loss will have more difficulty than young listeners but that older listeners with hearing impairment will have the most difficulty with this task even when the sounds they are listening to are adjusted to compensate for their hearing loss.

The aim of the study is to assess the effect of antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon alpha for hepatitis C and B on auditory disability as there are reports in the English literature on auditory disability caused by interferon alpha.

The sensitivity and specificity of the Hum Test is being investigated in it's ability to detect conductive hearing loss. The hum test is simply elicited by asking the subject to hum to him or herself for a few seconds at both a high and low pitch that is comfortable for the subject. The subject is then asked if the hum was heard on one side more than the other (left or right), or if the sound was equal on both sides. To simulate conductive hearing loss, ear plugs will be placed in one of the subject's ears. We will elicit the hum test as well as the standard Weber test and audiogram across two conditions, with an ear plug and without an ear plug. From this, it is hoped to assess how the Hum Test compares to the audiogram (gold standard) in detecting conductive hearing loss as well as how it compares to the standard Weber test. If the Hum Test demonstrates strong sensitivity and specificity in detecting conductive hearing loss, it could have application as being utilized as an alternative to the standard Weber test, or in a setting where a formal physical examination may not yet be possible but where the etiology of a patient's hearing change could be quickly assessed remotely and thus the urgency of intervention/ consultation could then be determined.

The purpose of this study is to assess the benefit of new super-power bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) processors in BAHA users. BAHAs are able to help people with mixed/conductive and single-sided hearing loss when they are unable to use or receive limited benefit from traditional hearing. Until recently, BAHAs were only recommended to people with up to a moderate hearing loss. New super-power BAHA processors may be able to help people who previously were not candidates for BAHAs or received limited benefit from them. The information collected in this study may lead to improved evaluation of and expanded treatment options for people considering BAHA. Different types of hearing tests will be used to compare the devices.

The purpose of this study is to collect patient related benefit data following treatment for permanent hearing loss with a hearing implant from the company Cochlear over a period of 2 years post treatment. Assessment of benefits is based on standard questionnaires of hearing ability and quality of life in general.

The study will allow to identify the prevalence of the SLC17A8 gene mutations in patients suffering from deafness. This phenotype also corresponds to DFNA15 deafness caused by POU4F3 : mutations of this gene will be screened as well.

This studied is designed to discover the genes that cause hearing impairment. More precisely, this study aims to map and clone genes that are important for the development and maintenance of the anatomy and physiology related to hearing (auditory system). The study will begin by finding large families who have members with hearing impairment. Once families are found, members with and without hearing impairment will be evaluated by an audiologist and a clinician (doctor). An audiologist, is a person trained in evaluating, habilitating, and rehabilitating people with disorders of hearing function. The clinician's responsibility is to examine the patients and check for other signs and symptoms related to hearing. Finding the gene for hearing impairment requires: <TAB>DNA samples of hearing impaired family members, taken from standard blood samples. <TAB>DNA samples of members of the family without hearing impairment, taken from standard blood samples. <TAB>Results of hearing tests conducted by the audiologist for all participants. Once all members of the family are evaluated researchers can create a pedigree. A pedigree is like a family tree that charts members of a family with a genetic disorder, like hearing impairment. Pedigrees are used to determine the mode of inheritance of the gene responsible for a particular condition. Finally, researcher intend on using all the information gathered as well as methods for genetic analysis to map out the location of the gene. Patients participating in this study will not directly benefit from its research, but scientific understanding achieved may help researchers better understand the auditory system and someday prevent deafness.<TAB>...

Neck pain is a common complaint in the general population affecting 10-15% of the general population. females more than men. Known risk factors are: Trauma, Repetitive lifting of heavy objects at work, driving vibrating vehicles, frequents diving from boards and smoking. No study dealt with the possible role of unilateral loss of vision or hearing as a risk factor for the development of neck pain. Intuitively, one might suspect that unilateral blindness or deafness will lead to a tilted position of the head, in order to cover a better visual/audio field. This position, in time, might lead to the development of neck pain. Our hypothesis is that patients with unilateral blindness/deafness will suffer from neck pain more frequently than the general population.