Active clinical trials for "Presbycusis"

Hearing loss is a critical health concern in the rapidly aging population, affecting approximately 22 million older individuals in the United States. Yet, only 30% of individuals who would benefit from the use of hearing aids regularly use them. This project aims to improve the benefit of hearing aids for older adults through incorporation of objective neural measures to assess effects of hearing aid algorithms.

The goal of this project is to find out if the way a hearing aid processes a sound signal should be determined in part by an individual's cognitive characteristics. We anticipate that the outcome of this work will be a battery of assessments that will guide hearing aid processing for older patients with hearing loss.

Mild to moderate hearing loss remains undertreated, largely because of the high cost of hearing aids. A promising and much less expensive alternative is the use of personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), which are electronic, portable, over-the-counter devices that amplify sound. Studies have shown that the use of PSAPs provides significant hearing benefits and improves the quality of life for older adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. However, there is insufficient data to determine the impact of PSAPs use on speech processing in the brain. The purpose of this study is to use electroencephalography (EEG) measurements to assess the neurobiological and behavioral effects of PSAPs on speech perception in noise in individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss. The investigators expect that the PSAPs use will result in an immediate improvement in the ability to perceive speech-in-noise, supporting that these hearing devices may be a means of restoring communication skills in people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Behavioral benefits will be associated with increased brain activity in auditory regions and connectivity between auditory and speech regions in the brain.

This study aimed to examine the effects of single and dual-task training on physical function, cognitive function, quality of life, balance, concerns about falling, and activities of daily living in the elderly with age-related hearing loss. The elderly who were diagnosed with age-related hearing loss in Pamukkale University Health, Practice and Research Center, Department of Otorhinolaryngology participated in the study. The elderly were allocated a single-task training group, dual-task training group, and control group. Thirteen patients in the single-task training group, 15 patients in the dual-task training group, 14 patients in the control group completed the study. Degrees of hearing loss were determined by pure tone audiometry. Evaluations, Senior Fitness Test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, World Health Organization- Quality of Life- Old Module, Berg Balance Scale, Falls Efficacy Scale International, Functional Independence Measure, Dual Task Questionnaire, Dual Task Effect, were performed initially, after the interventions and at the 6th month. The interventions were carried out two days a week and 40 minutes, for five weeks.

A personal sound amplifying device (PASP) like Teo First is a wearable electronic product that is not intended to compensate for impaired hearing, but rather is intended for non-hearing impaired consumers to amplify sounds in the environment for a number of reasons, such as for recreational activities. Nevertheless, a lot of mild and moderate impaired hearing people don't want to buy and wear all day a real hearing aid. The goal of our study is to evaluate the benefit of such a device for mild and moderate presbycusis patient 60 years of age and older, with no previous hearing aid.

One in six people in the United Kingdom and over 400 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss. This figure will double by 2050 as predicted by the World Health Organisation. There is an urgent need to improve our knowledge regarding hearing loss, its underlying mechanisms, optimal diagnostic modalities, reliable and accurate functional and imaging biomarkers. A less-well studied condition associated with progressive hearing loss is infratentorial superficial siderosis (iSS). It results from iron deposition along the surfaces of brain structures which control hearing and balance. It is currently considered uncommon, but may well be under-recognised and therefore under-reported. Despite its severity, our current understanding of its impact on the hearing (auditory) and balance (vestibular) functions is limited, and this has an adverse impact on the treatment offered to these patients. Additionally, iSS patients have been reported to have cognitive impairment yet literature reports of cognitive assessment in iSS are few. The cognitive dysfunction may be specific to iSS or due to progressive hearing impairment or a combination of both, and further studies are required to establish this. Olfaction is also known to be affected in patients with iSS yet is rarely reported in the literature. Due to the significant morbidity and progressive nature, there is a clear need to improve our understanding of the audiovestibular dysfunction resulting from iSS. The aim of this study is to comprehensively assess audiovestibular function in iSS compared to age-related hearing loss and the controls/normative data and as a means to quantify deficits for monitoring disease progression and response to treatment, to assess the impact on the quality of life, to analyse clinically-obtained data (including imaging, cognitive and laboratory data), and correlate these with functional findings in iSS.

The primary complaint of individuals with hearing loss is difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise. Although hearing aids help individuals understand speech in background noise better, there is a high rate of hearing aid rejection in part due to continued difficulty understanding speech in complex listening situations. The results of this study may demonstrate that speech-in-noise test results can be a predictor of hearing aid success. The results of this study also may lead to further studies that can evaluate interventions to improve hearing aid success for individuals who are identified as unsuccessful hearing aid users.

The proportion of elderly people is expected to increase greatly within the next couple of decades, resulting in a proportional increase in the need for hearing rehabilitation. However, studies suggest that as many as 40% of hearing aids are never or seldom used. Thus, a major challenge for audiological rehabilitation is facilitating the use of fitted hearing aids. This study has four objectives; 1) to evaluate the effect of advanced notice of a follow-up appointment on hearing aid use, 2) to implement a specialized counselling program based on MI, 3) to identify barriers to hearing aid use, and 4) to objectively assess hearing aid use with datalogging technology.

In France, Alzheimer's disease accounts for 70 to 80% of the causes of neurocognitive disorders, i.e. 600,000 to 800,000 patients. It is a neurodegenerative pathology that causes evolutionary cognitive dysfunction, mainly affecting memory functions. The inability to name familiar objects (lack of the word) is one of the most commonly noted symptoms at an early stage of the disease. Presbyacusis, or age-related hearing loss, is the most common sensory deficit in the elderly which is manifested socially by a progressive discomfort of verbal communication. Presbyacusis remains underdiagnosed and undertreated: 2/3 of the patients are not using hearing aid. In recent years, a link between neurocognitive disorders and hearing loss has been shown by investigating general cognition. In this study, the investigators are investigating lexical disorders.

The ageing process is known to be accelerated in HIV-infected patients, compared to the general population. Normal age-related hearing loss (presbyacusia) is a frequent phenomenon, affecting more than 70% of people above 65 years. It is believed to be mostly the consequence of a mitochondrial damage caused by oxidative stress. Risk factors for accelerated age-related hearing loss are present in many HIV-infected patients : chronic inflammation, smoking, diabetes, etc. The global aim is to measure the prevalence of presbyacusia in a well controlled HIV positive population in France, and to compare it to HIV negative controls matched for age and sex. 90 HIV positive patients and 90 age- and sex- matched HIV negative controls will undergo a screening for presbyacusia (pure-tone, speech and evoked-response audiometry). We expect to find an increased prevalence of presbyacusia in HIV-infected patients, as compared to controls matched for age and sex.