The Feasibility of the Speech Intelligibility Index in the Clinical Hearing Care

Abstract: Hearing-impaired individuals that use hearing aids often experience problems when exposed to daily situations in life. The dierent environments include for example classrooms, oces and public areas. For the hearing impaired, the correct adjustments of the hearing aids are of great importance. For these settings to be proper, a measurement called the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII), is questioned to be implemented in the clinical hearing care. To answer this question of issue whether feasibility lay in the implementation of SII in the clinical hearing care with the interface of hearing aids, a literature study ordered by the Hearing- & Balance Clinic (H&B) at Karolinska University Hospital situated at Rosenlund Hospital, was initiated. The focus of the study was primarily held in concern of SII as a hearing aid validation measurement and later extended to SII as a room acoustic measurement disregarding the eect of hearing aids. The result of the study showed that the use of SII in the clinical hearing care is troubled and further that the implementation as a room acoustic measurement is probable but has to be additionally investigated.