Hearing aids rarely deliver meaningful speech-intelligibility benefits exceeding their detectability

Evidence

Given the difficulty in achieving SNR benefits greater than 6 dB in realistic environments with current hearing aid processing outwith wireless transmission of the signal (e.g., Whitmer et al. 2011 ), the evidence here indicates that there is no demonstrable “wow” in speech-intelligibility benefits. Rather, assessing other potential avenues of benefit—such as long-term improvements, attentional/cognitive ease, and psycho-social engagement—could show the advantages of hearing aids despite the benefits they give in SNR being less than the JND or JMD. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5669

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the case that ‘easier listening,’ cognitive load, and psychosocial engagement — not raw intelligibility — are where hearing aids actually deliver their value.
• XREF: Connects to hearing-aid non-use from unmet expectations (McCormack and Fortnum 2013) — measurable benefit without satisfaction.