Research is an important part of any university program. It stimulates students to pursue answers to academic or clinical questions using a scientific approach. Students have the opportunity to work hand in hand with the principal investigators to develop their research skills. Research also benefits the hard of hearing patients that we see in our clinics. The information that we learn from these research projects makes us better able to serve those patients coming to us for help with their communication problems.

Current Projects:

Development and Evaluation of Audiologic Rehabilitation Programming for Significant Others of Individuals with Hearing Loss.

  • Principal Investigator: Jill Preminger, Ph.D.

  • Funding Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation; New Century Scholars Program

  • The purpose of this project is to determine whether training in communication strategies and psychosocial exercises for spouses of hearing handicapped individuals 1) increases the spouses awareness of their partner's hearing handicap, 2) decreases the hearing-related handicap associated with living with a partner with hearing loss as personally experienced by the spouses, and 3) decreases the hearing-handicap experienced by their partners with hearing loss. A randomized controlled study is being conducted to measure the effectiveness of group audiologic rehabilitation for individuals with hearing loss and their spouses. One group of individuals with hearing loss is participating in audiologic rehabilitation classes and their spouses are participating in classes designed specifically for them. A second group of individuals with hearing loss is participating in audiologic rehabilitation classes, but their spouses are not being offered any classes. Outcome evaluation will include measures of hearing handicap, marital communication and depression.

 

The Efficacy of Group Aural Rehabilitation Programs

  • Principal Investigator: Jill Preminger, Ph.D.

  • Funding Source: National Institute of Health – National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, RO3

  • In this project we are examining the efficacy of adult group aural rehabilitation training, for adults with hearing loss, offered in a classroom environment. Group aural rehabilitation classes may include training in speechreading, auditory perception, and communication strategies. Group classes offer an opportunity to teach general information about hearing loss and provide a forum in which adults with hearing loss can share information and emotional support. It is not known if group training in speechreading, auditory perception and/or communication strategies will lead to improved performance. It is not clear what component or components of the group aural rehabilitation class specifically lead to reduced hearing handicap. The results of the experiments will determine: 1) whether listeners with hearing loss who receive speechreading and auditory perception training over a 6-week period actually improve these abilities as measured by tests of visual and auditory speech perception; 2) whether group interaction within an aural rehabilitation class effects hearing handicap; and, 3) which aspect(s) of group aural rehabilitation classes provide benefit.

 

Preminger, J.E. (in press, February 2007). Issues associated with the measurement of psychosocial benefits of group audiologic rehabilitation programs. Trends in Amplification.

 

Recently Completed Projects:

Does a One-Time Audiologic Rehabilitation Class Influence Hearing Aid Purchasing Behavior?

  • Principal Investigator: Jill Preminger, Ph.D.

  • Funding Source: Oticon Corporation

  • The purpose of this study was to determine whether a one-time group audiologic rehabilitation class for individuals with hearing loss who do not wear hearing aids would influence an individual's interest in seeking additional AR including hearing aid purchasing behavior. The results showed that in spite of being informed about their hearing loss and even participating in group AR classes, individuals with hearing loss who were candidates for amplification still did not pursue hearing aids.

 

The Clinical Utility of Measuring Dead Regions.

  • Principal Investigator: Jill Preminger, Ph.D.

  • Funding Source: The University of Louisville School of Medicine.

  • The purpose of these investigations were to determine the impact of auditory dead regions on: the audiogram, speech intelligibility, hearing aid satisfaction, and the hearing aid fitting. The results showed that the presence or absence of auditory dead regions cannot be predicted from the audiogram. Listeners with auditory dead regions have poorer sentence understanding in noise and poorer hearing aid satisfaction that listeners without dead regions. Preliminary work demonstrates inconsistent results for hearing aid fittings adjusted according to the location of an individual's dead regions.

 

Preminger, J.E., Carpenter, R., & Ziegler, C.H. (2005). A Clinical Perspective on Cochlear Dead Regions: Intelligibility of Speech and Subjective Hearing Aid Benefit. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 16, 600-613.