International Journal of Audiology | 2019
Compensated active noise cancellation earphone for audiometric screening tests in noisy environments
Abstract
Abstract Objective: This study investigated hearing screening tests by using a custom-designed compensated hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC) earphone and compared it with TDH39 and Audiocups audiometric earphones under conditions of quiet, 45\u2009dB HL masking narrowband, wideband speech-shaped, and white noise. Design: The hearing screening tests were conducted to characterise the shifts of screening results under noisy conditions, and real-ear attenuations at thresholds were assessed to quantify real-ear noise reduction performance. Study sample: Twenty-four normal-hearing adults, aged 20–25\u2009years, participated in this study. Results: The ANC earphone exhibited significantly lower/better mean screening results than those of the TDH39 earphone at 250 and 500\u2009Hz and those of the Audiocups earphone at 250\u2009Hz under conditions of narrowband, speech-shaped, and white noise. Compared with the TDH39 earphone at 250 and 500\u2009Hz, applying a hybrid ANC earphone reduced the shifts in screening results by 14.2 and 12.3\u2009dB, respectively, under the narrowband noise condition. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the compensated hybrid ANC earphone provided lower shifts of screening results than the TDH39 and Audiocups earphones and that it was capable of screening at 250 and 500\u2009Hz from 20\u2009dB HL under 45\u2009dB HL masking narrowband and wideband noise.