Development and evaluation of a hearing aid manual in the Malay language

Objective: This study aimed to (a) translate a hearing aid (HA) manual into Malay language and revise the translated manual based on best practice guidelines; (b) compare the effectiveness of the translated and the revised Malay HA manuals in helping individuals to perform HA management tasks.

Design: Cross-sectional, randomised, single-blinded study.

Study sample: An Oticon-Dynamo HA manual was translated and revised based on best practice guidelines. Ninety participants aged 55?years and above participated in this study. They were randomly assigned into the control group (received translated manual) and the experimental group (received the revised translated manual). The Hearing Aid Management (HAM) test, which was developed in a previous study, was conducted to evaluate participant’s ability to perform HA management tasks using the translated and the revised version of Malay HA manual.

Results: The revised Malay HA manual had a lower reading grade level relative to the initial translated Malay HA manual. The ability to perform HA management tasks was better in the experimental group (mean = 12.2, SD = 1.15) versus the control group (mean = 8.7, SD = 2.11).

Conclusion: Further revision of existing HA manuals based on best practice guidelines is recommended to help individuals better manage their HAs.     

A critical review of the effects of wearable cameras on memory

The rise of “lifelogging” in this era of rapid technological innovation has led to great interest in whether or not such technologies could be used to rehabilitate memory. Despite the growing number of studies using lifelogging, such as with wearable cameras, there is a lack of a theoretical framework to support its effective use. The present review focuses on the use of wearable cameras. We propose that wearable cameras can be particularly effective for memory rehabilitation if they can evoke more than a mere familiarity with previous stimuli, and reinstate previous thoughts, feelings and sensory information: recollection. Considering that, in memory impairment, self-initiated processes to reinstate previous encoding conditions are compromised, we invoke the environmental support hypothesis as a theoretical motivation. Twenty-five research studies were included in this review. We conclude that, despite the general acceptance of the value of wearable cameras as a memory rehabilitation technique, only a small number of studies have focused on recollection. We highlight a set of methodological issues that should be considered for future research, including sample size, control condition used, and critical measures of memory and other domains. We conclude by suggesting that research should focus on the theory-driven measure of efficacy described in this review, so that lifelogging technologies can contribute to memory rehabilitation in a meaningful and effective manner.     

抢救心得交流在提高ICU护士急救能力中的应用

目的探讨抢救心得交流在提高ICU护士急救能力中的应用效果。方法根据ICU工作年限和工作能力进行分层管理,不同层次明确抢救心得的交流次数,确定交流范围和内容,由N3级及以上护士进行分析、点评、指导,护士长点评总结,择优进行表彰学习。结果护士应急理论、急救技能操作考核合格率及医生对护士抢救配合的满意度均提高(P0.01)。结论抢救心得交流能激发护士学习的主观能动性,提高ICU护士的急救能力。     

支架模式在护理临床教学老师急救教学能力培养中的构建

目的构建支架模式以提升护理临床教师的急救教学能力。方法基于最近发展区理论构建支架式模式,并分析其优势。结果以搭建支架-导入情境-协作学习-独立探索-效果评价5个步骤为基本环节的支架模式的构建顺利完成。结论支架模式在护理临床教师急救教学能力培养中具有一定可行性及适用性。     

Auditory speech sounds evaluation (A§E®): a new test to assess detection,discrimination and identification in hearing impairment

Abstract

This paper describes a set of suprathreshold tests, available as a software package (A§E®), for the auditory evaluation of the hearing impaired. It uses isolated speech sounds as test material for a discrimination, identification and detection test, and is specifically suited to test preverbal children. All tests allow strict analytical interpretation. The test material and procedures are described. Their clinical use is illustrated. The authors claim that suprathreshold tests are feasible in the preverbal child, allowing analytical evaluation of the auditory capacities. These tests are complementary to the routinely used detection tests and add significantly to the hearing evaluation in preverbal children. The authors recommend the phoneme discrimination test for selection of cochlear implant candidates and for the evaluation and fitting of cochlear implants. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The cocktail party effect

The main advantages of wearing 2 ear level hearing aids are the possibilities of directional hearing and of avoiding the acoustical head shadow. These effects are rather easy to measure. There exists another effect which would seem, at first sight, to be of major importance: The fact that in an environment of hampering sounds one understands better with 2 ears than with only 1: the cocktail party effect (CPE).

As in already described [Kuyper and de Boer, 1969] there are many ways to measure and even to define the CPE. The most natural way (and the best if one investigates hearing aids) is to use loudspeakers. Carhart [1965] describes a method which avoids the effect of head shadow. Unfortunately it was impossible for us to obtain in double prothetized subjects an effect which was greater than the variance.

In order to avoid this variance we improved a method developed by Feldmann in 1963, and in this way succeeded in obtaining significant results for each single subject.

Applying this method on prothetized subjects, forced us to use the telephone coil instead of the microphone of the post-aural hearing-aids.     

Effects of Room Reverberation upon Hearing Aid Quality Judgments

Hearing-aid-processed speech recorded in reverberant and nonreverberant environments was ranked utilizing quality judgment and speech discrimination tasks. 21 normally hearing and 20 hearing-impaired listeners ranked the hearing-aid-processed speech. Quality judgments in reverberant environments may yield important information with respect to hearing aid selection. In contrast, speech discrimination rankings in a non-reverberant environment appeared to be similar to the speech discrimination rankings obtained in the reverberant condition.

21 sujets à audition normale et 20 sujets souffrant d'une atteinte de l'audition participèrent à cette étude qui avait pour but de classer un certain nombre d'appareils de correction auditive, compte tenu des résultats d'un test de qualité et d'un test de discrimination de la parole en milieu réverbérant et en milieu non réverbérant. En milieu réverbérant, les jugements subjectifs de qualité sont susceptibles de fournir des renseignements importants pour le choix de l'appareil de correction auditive. Par contre, le classement de ces appareils par l'étude de la discrimination de la parole en milieu réverbérant est semblable à celui effectué en milieu non réverbérant.