Aided loudness growth and satisfaction with everyday loudness perception in compression hearing aid users.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between listeners' loudness growth and their satisfaction with loudness when wearing wide-dynamic-range compression (WDRC) hearing aids. An absolute-magnitude-estimate procedure was used to obtain listeners' unaided and aided loudness growth functions in response to a 500 and 2000 Hz warble tone. In general, listeners' unaided loudness growth functions were steeper than the average normal-hearing listeners' functions for both frequencies, and their aided loudness growth functions were shallower than their unaided functions. Loudness growth functions tended to be undercompressed for 500 Hz but overcompressed for 2000 Hz. The Profile of Aided Loudness (PAL) questionnaire was administered to determine listeners' loudness satisfaction in everyday listening situations. Most listeners were satisfied with their perception of soft, average, and loud environmental sounds, regardless of how well or not well their WDRC aids normalized their aided loudness growth.