Ida Institute Awards 2018 Research Grants

​

The Ida Institute Research Grants for 2018 were recently awarded to three projects that aim to advance hearing care. Each year, the institute provides up to 10,000 USD to three projects that develop evidence related to Ida Institute methods and tools and aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of person-centered care in hearing rehabilitation. 

This year's awardees were projects submitted by Dr. Caitlin Barr from the University of Melbourne, Dr. Deborah Viviane Ferrari from the University of São Paulo, and Karina Swanepoel from the University of Pretoria, to further research and build evidence for person-centered care.

• Learning to "Walk the Walk" with "Time and Talk": Evaluation of Changes in Person-Centered Communication Skills of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Students
  This project will look at the effectiveness of the Ida Institute's Time and Talk tool in changing the communication styles of audiology and speech-pathology students in an effort to make them more person-centered. Findings will inform a larger study on person-centered communication education.
  Principal researcher: Dr. Caitlin Barr
  Co-investigators: Dr. Nerina Scarinci, Dr. Monique Waite, Dr. Jessica Vitkovic, and Samantha Tai
   
• Adaptation and Assessment of the Online Course "Client Engagement and Ida Motivation Tools" for Brazilian Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Undergraduate Students
  This project will translate the Ida Learning Hall course, "Client Engagement and Ida Motivation Tools," into Portuguese in order to train students enrolled in the Brazilian university system. The project will also assess the efficacy of the course as a way of teaching students about motivational interviewing.
  Principal researcher: Deborah Viviane Ferrari
  Co-investigator: Rodolpho Camargo
   
• Decision-Support and Help-Seeking on a Smartphone Screening App
  This project will use the hearing test app, hearZA, and the Ida Institute's Why Improve My Hearing tool to detect hearing loss in individuals in South Africa. Individuals who fail the hearing test will be linked to their nearest hearing care professional; the project will look at uptake of the recommendation.
  Principal researcher: Karina Swanepoel
  Co-investigator: De Wet Swanepoel, Ph.D., David Moore, Ph.D.

This year's winning projects will be completed by September 2019.​

Published: 6/13/2018 11:44:00 AM

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Ida Institute Awards 2018 Research Grants

​

The Ida Institute Research Grants for 2018 were recently awarded to three projects that aim to advance hearing care. Each year, the institute provides up to 10,000 USD to three projects that develop evidence related to Ida Institute methods and tools and aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of person-centered care in hearing rehabilitation. 

This year's awardees were projects submitted by Dr. Caitlin Barr from the University of Melbourne, Dr. Deborah Viviane Ferrari from the University of São Paulo, and Karina Swanepoel from the University of Pretoria, to further research and build evidence for person-centered care.

• Learning to "Walk the Walk" with "Time and Talk": Evaluation of Changes in Person-Centered Communication Skills of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Students
  This project will look at the effectiveness of the Ida Institute's Time and Talk tool in changing the communication styles of audiology and speech-pathology students in an effort to make them more person-centered. Findings will inform a larger study on person-centered communication education.
  Principal researcher: Dr. Caitlin Barr
  Co-investigators: Dr. Nerina Scarinci, Dr. Monique Waite, Dr. Jessica Vitkovic, and Samantha Tai
   
• Adaptation and Assessment of the Online Course "Client Engagement and Ida Motivation Tools" for Brazilian Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Undergraduate Students
  This project will translate the Ida Learning Hall course, "Client Engagement and Ida Motivation Tools," into Portuguese in order to train students enrolled in the Brazilian university system. The project will also assess the efficacy of the course as a way of teaching students about motivational interviewing.
  Principal researcher: Deborah Viviane Ferrari
  Co-investigator: Rodolpho Camargo
   
• Decision-Support and Help-Seeking on a Smartphone Screening App
  This project will use the hearing test app, hearZA, and the Ida Institute's Why Improve My Hearing tool to detect hearing loss in individuals in South Africa. Individuals who fail the hearing test will be linked to their nearest hearing care professional; the project will look at uptake of the recommendation.
  Principal researcher: Karina Swanepoel
  Co-investigator: De Wet Swanepoel, Ph.D., David Moore, Ph.D.

This year's winning projects will be completed by September 2019.​

Published: 6/13/2018 11:44:00 AM

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Impact of vocal techniques on vocal improvement

Publication date: Available online 12 June 2018
Source:Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología
Author(s): Heitor Lincoln Canuto de Almeida, Lourdes Bernadete Rocha de Souza
IntroductionVocal techniques have shown to be important strategies to improve, promote and rehabilitate vocal health.PurposeVerify the immediate impact of vocal techniques on the improvement of acoustic and aerodynamic parameters, vocal deviation and self-assessment.MethodsDescriptive, observational, comparative study including 40 women without vocal complaints, age range 18–45 years, equally divided into four groups according to the technique applied. The participants underwent voice assessment before and after performing the vocal technique. Each technique was performed for 1min and participants were re-evaluated in order to measure the immediate effects of the techniques on the parameters evaluated. For the analysis of the variables, the non-parametric Wilcoxon test was used.ResultsAmong the techniques studied, the high-pitched sound proved more effective in improving the acoustic and perceptual parameters, although in the other techniques was noticed a tendency to improvement in the result, but without statistical significance. In the self-assessment, the techniques to increase the maximum phonation time by softening the emission were more accepted by participants than those related to phonation resistance, which require more effort to be performed.ConclusionThe high-pitched sound technique favored an improved performance of participants in all parameters evaluated, although the other techniques studied showed a tendency to improvement in the evaluation measures.



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Impact of vocal techniques on vocal improvement

Publication date: Available online 12 June 2018
Source:Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología
Author(s): Heitor Lincoln Canuto de Almeida, Lourdes Bernadete Rocha de Souza
IntroductionVocal techniques have shown to be important strategies to improve, promote and rehabilitate vocal health.PurposeVerify the immediate impact of vocal techniques on the improvement of acoustic and aerodynamic parameters, vocal deviation and self-assessment.MethodsDescriptive, observational, comparative study including 40 women without vocal complaints, age range 18–45 years, equally divided into four groups according to the technique applied. The participants underwent voice assessment before and after performing the vocal technique. Each technique was performed for 1min and participants were re-evaluated in order to measure the immediate effects of the techniques on the parameters evaluated. For the analysis of the variables, the non-parametric Wilcoxon test was used.ResultsAmong the techniques studied, the high-pitched sound proved more effective in improving the acoustic and perceptual parameters, although in the other techniques was noticed a tendency to improvement in the result, but without statistical significance. In the self-assessment, the techniques to increase the maximum phonation time by softening the emission were more accepted by participants than those related to phonation resistance, which require more effort to be performed.ConclusionThe high-pitched sound technique favored an improved performance of participants in all parameters evaluated, although the other techniques studied showed a tendency to improvement in the evaluation measures.



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The Emotional Communication in Hearing Questionnaire (EMO-CHeQ): Development and Evaluation

Objectives: The objectives of this research were to develop and evaluate a self-report questionnaire (the Emotional Communication in Hearing Questionnaire or EMO-CHeQ) designed to assess experiences of hearing and handicap when listening to signals that contain vocal emotion information. Design: Study 1 involved internet-based administration of a 42-item version of the EMO-CHeQ to 586 adult participants (243 with self-reported normal hearing [NH], 193 with self-reported hearing impairment but no reported use of hearing aids [HI], and 150 with self-reported hearing impairment and use of hearing aids [HA]). To better understand the factor structure of the EMO-CHeQ and eliminate redundant items, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Study 2 involved laboratory-based administration of a 16-item version of the EMO-CHeQ to 32 adult participants (12 normal hearing/near normal hearing (NH/nNH), 10 HI, and 10 HA). In addition, participants completed an emotion-identification task under audio and audiovisual conditions. Results: In study 1, the exploratory factor analysis yielded an interpretable solution with four factors emerging that explained a total of 66.3% of the variance in performance the EMO-CHeQ. Item deletion resulted in construction of the 16-item EMO-CHeQ. In study 1, both the HI and HA group reported greater vocal emotion communication handicap on the EMO-CHeQ than on the NH group, but differences in handicap were not observed between the HI and HA group. In study 2, the same pattern of reported handicap was observed in individuals with audiometrically verified hearing as was found in study 1. On the emotion-identification task, no group differences in performance were observed in the audiovisual condition, but group differences were observed in the audio alone condition. Although the HI and HA group exhibited similar emotion-identification performance, both groups performed worse than the NH/nNH group, thus suggesting the presence of behavioral deficits that parallel self-reported vocal emotion communication handicap. The EMO-CHeQ was significantly and strongly (r = −0.64) correlated with performance on the emotion-identification task for listeners with hearing impairment. Conclusions: The results from both studies suggest that the EMO-CHeQ appears to be a reliable and ecologically valid measure to rapidly assess experiences of hearing and handicap when listening to signals that contain vocal emotion information. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and text of this article on the journal’s Web site (www.ear-hearing.com). Received May 17, 2017; accepted April 4, 2018. Address for correspondence: Gurjit Singh, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2K3. E-mail: Gurjit.singh@phonak.com Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Failure on the Foam Eyes Closed Test of Standing Balance Associated With Reduced Semicircular Canal Function in Healthy Older Adults

Objectives: Standing on foam with eyes closed (FOEC) has been characterized as a measure of vestibular function; however, the relative contribution of vestibular function and proprioceptive function to the FOEC test has not been well described. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between peripheral sensory systems (vestibular and proprioception) and performance on the FOEC test in a cohort of healthy adults. Design: A total of 563 community-dwelling healthy adults (mean age, 72.7 [SD, 12.6] years; range, 27 to 93 years) participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging were tested. Proprioceptive threshold (PROP) was evaluated with passive motion detection at the right ankle. Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain was measured using video head impulses. Otolith function was measured with cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials. Participants stood on FOEC for 40 sec while wearing BalanSens (BioSensics, LLC, Watertown, MA) to quantify center of mass sway area. A mixed-model multiple logistic regression was used to examine the odds of passing the FOEC test based on PROP, VOR, cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential, and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential function in a multisensory model while controlling for age and gender. Results: The odds of passing the FOEC test decreased by 15% (p

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A “Goldilocks” Approach to Hearing Aid Self-Fitting: Ear-Canal Output and Speech Intelligibility Index

Objectives: The objective was to determine self-adjusted output response and speech intelligibility index (SII) in individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss and to measure the effects of prior hearing aid experience. Design: Thirteen hearing aid users and 13 nonusers, with similar group-mean pure-tone thresholds, listened to prerecorded and preprocessed sentences spoken by a man. Starting with a generic level and spectrum, participants adjusted (1) overall level, (2) high-frequency boost, and (3) low-frequency cut. Participants took a speech perception test after an initial adjustment before making a final adjustment. The three self-selected parameters, along with individual thresholds and real-ear-to-coupler differences, were used to compute output levels and SIIs for the starting and two self-adjusted conditions. The values were compared with an NAL second nonlinear threshold-based prescription (NAL-NL2) and, for the hearing aid users, performance of their existing hearing aids. Results: All participants were able to complete the self-adjustment process. The generic starting condition provided outputs (between 2 and 8 kHz) and SIIs that were significantly below those prescribed by NAL-NL2. Both groups increased SII to values that were not significantly different from prescription. The hearing aid users, but not the nonusers, increased high-frequency output and SII significantly after taking the speech perception test. Seventeen of the 26 participants (65%) met an SII criterion of 60% under the generic starting condition. The proportion increased to 23 out of 26 (88%) after the final self-adjustment. Of the 13 hearing aid users, 8 (62%) met the 60% criterion with their existing hearing aids. With the final self-adjustment, 12 out of 13 (92%) met this criterion. Conclusions: The findings support the conclusion that user self-adjustment of basic amplification characteristics can be both feasible and effective with or without prior hearing aid experience. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This work was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders grant numbers R21DC015046 and R33DC015046 to San Diego State University (Dr. Carol Mackersie, Principal Investigator, and Harinath Garudadri, University of California San Diego, Co-Principal Investigator). The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and text of this article on the journal’s Web site (www.ear-hearing.com). Received December 5, 2017; accepted April 11, 2018. Address for correspondence: Carol Mackersie, School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, MC-1518, San Diego, CA 92182, USA. E-mail: cmackers@sdsu.edu Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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