• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the occupational performance of Korean workers with and without hearing loss and analyze the hearing-related difficulties in the working environment. Subjects and Methods: The Amsterdam checklist for hearing and work was used for the analyses and the occupational environments of the Korean workers were investigated. Out of 129 total participants, 86 workers experienced severe to profound hearing loss and 43 had the normal hearing ability. The hearing-impaired workers were recruited from two leading vocational centers and normal-hearing workers were their colleagues. Results: The hearing-impaired workers were found to take fewer sick leaves and exhibited higher rates of permanent job statuses compared to the normal-hearing workers. Workers with hearing loss rarely detected background sound; however, they could perceive reverberation more frequently. They felt more satisfied with their careers than the normal hearing workers as they received social support and needed to put their effort into hearing for most hearing activities. Furthermore, the effort in hearing increased with the increase in job demand, job control, social support, and career satisfaction. The working hours per week increased with the increase in age, education level, job demand, job control, and social support. Different trends were observed in 9 out of 12 variables while comparing the data from the present study with that obtained from the hearing-impaired workers of the Netherlands, indicating a large difference between countries. Conclusions: Although the hearing-impaired Korean workers operate diligently with good job positions, it is necessary to enhance their acoustic environment and provide them social support. Considering the cultural background of the hearing-impaired workers, the development of suitable vocational rehabilitation programs and specific questionnaires is strongly recommended worldwide.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.189-199
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the occupational performance of Korean workers with and without hearing loss and analyze the hearing-related difficulties in the working environment. Subjects and Methods: The Amsterdam checklist for hearing and work was used for the analyses and the occupational environments of the Korean workers were investigated. Out of 129 total participants, 86 workers experienced severe to profound hearing loss and 43 had the normal hearing ability. The hearing-impaired workers were recruited from two leading vocational centers and normal-hearing workers were their colleagues. Results: The hearing-impaired workers were found to take fewer sick leaves and exhibited higher rates of permanent job statuses compared to the normal-hearing workers. Workers with hearing loss rarely detected background sound; however, they could perceive reverberation more frequently. They felt more satisfied with their careers than the normal hearing workers as they received social support and needed to put their effort into hearing for most hearing activities. Furthermore, the effort in hearing increased with the increase in job demand, job control, social support, and career satisfaction. The working hours per week increased with the increase in age, education level, job demand, job control, and social support. Different trends were observed in 9 out of 12 variables while comparing the data from the present study with that obtained from the hearing-impaired workers of the Netherlands, indicating a large difference between countries. Conclusions: Although the hearing-impaired Korean workers operate diligently with good job positions, it is necessary to enhance their acoustic environment and provide them social support. Considering the cultural background of the hearing-impaired workers, the development of suitable vocational rehabilitation programs and specific questionnaires is strongly recommended worldwide.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.818-830
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the parents listening guidance program, which allows the parents to understand their hearing impaired children and how to listen at home, on the communication skills of the hearing impaired children. The research subjects were 3 hearing impaired children who did not accompany with the intellectual, emotional and behabioral problems, and the listening guidance has been performed for their parents for 3 months through the listening guidance program. The changes in the communication skills in the hearing impaired children were observed comparing before and after the education. In the results, first, the receptive language skill of the hearing impaired children was improved after than before the parents listening guidance. Second, the expressive language skill of the hearing impaired children was improved after than before the parents listening guidance, too. Third, in the communication behavior of the hearing impaired children, the phonation and the speech production were increased together with the gesture after the parents listening guidance. In conclusion, it is deemed that the parents listening guidance program would have positive influence on the communication behavior of the hearing impaired children.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2004.08c
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• pp.755-758
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• 2004

A hearing aid performs the role of fitting in order to provide those with a hearing problem with a better hearing ability in ordinary circumstances. The existing Fitting system in the hearing aid is consisted somewhat complex, and simply performs the role of Fitting without any supervisions of those with a hearing problem. Such is these methods makes it unable to establish an organized supervision, and shows a problem in making high efficiency. In order to solve this problem mentioned as above, the based thesis have connected the Fitting program and the patient-management database program for the easy use by the user.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.97-104
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• 2021

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there are differences in confrontation naming ability, generative naming ability, hearing handicap, and depression in community-dwelling elderly by age group, and whether there is any correlation among them, and to find out what factors explain the two naming abilities (confront and generative) of the elderly. Sixty-five community-dwelling elderly people participated: 65~74 years were classified into young-old; 75~84 years into old-old; and 85 years and over into oldest-old. K-BNT-15 for the confrontation naming ability, animal naming test for the generative naming ability, K-HHIE for the subjective hearing handicap, and GDS for the subjective depression were administered. First, there was a statistically significant difference in confrontation naming and depression levels according to age groups. Second, there was a positive correlation between chronological age and subjective depression level and between subjective hearing handicap level and subjective depression level, and a negative correlation between education level and subjective depression level. Third, the confrontation naming score was explained by age, and the generative naming score was explained by subjective depression level. The results show that naming abilities, subjective hearing handicap, and subjective depression level are not simply the result of normal aging and that a convergence approach is needed in various fields to solve the issue.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.430-440
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to analyze the degree of depression, cognitive function, communication ability, and the quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG) in elderly individuals with hearing loss and to investigate their inter-relationship. Hearing-impaired elderly participants, aged 60 years or older (37 men and 26 women) who visited the S Hearing Rehabilitation Center in Y City from June 20, 2020, to September 3, 2020, participated voluntarily after a recruitment announcement.The participants' overall characteristics, depression, and cognitive functions were evaluated with a structured questionnaire. The Word Recognition Score (WRS) was evaluated with an audiometer using the Korean Standard Monosyllabic Word Lists for Adults (KS-MWL-A). The quantitative EEG was measured with dry electrodes using a 2-channel EEG on the frontal lobes Fp1 and Fp2. The results are summarized as follows: Communication ability showed a positive correlation with the left-right symmetry of the frontal lobes (**p<.01) and a negative correlation with right-brain mental distraction and stress (*p<.05). In the difference WRS test for each group, the left-right symmetry of the frontal lobes (**p<.01) showed the greatest correlation with communication ability. Our results suggest that the left-right symmetry of the frontal lobes can be a biomarker indicative of the communication ability of older people with hearing impairments.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2020

The binaural beat is a subjective beating phenomenon due to the frequency difference of sounds heard in both ears, sensed by the human brain. The beating magnitude physically depends on the amplitudes of the two signals with slight different frequencies. Therefore, the binaural beat strength is expected to be affected by the difference in left and right hearing ability. In this study, 34 healthy subjects without hearing loss were chosen. They hear a pure tone sound (450 Hz) at 10 different Sound Pressure Levels (SPLs) (from 50 dB to 27.4 dB) through the one side of ears, while they hear the reference sound (440 Hz, 50 dB) through the other side of ears. Their subjective assessment using a semantic differential method reveals that the binaural beat strength decreases as SPL differences between the two sides of ears increases, if the difference is greater than 2.2 dB. The result suggests that the hearing loss difference between the two sides of ears should be less than 2.2 dB to maximize binaural beating effects.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.384-390
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to improve the availability of underwater sound by the fundamental data on the hearing ability of Redlip croaker Pseudosciaena polyactis, which is cultured according to the cultivation technology, recently. The auditory thresholds of Redlip croaker were determined at 6 frequencies from 80Hz to 800Hz by heartbeat conditioning method using pure tones coupled with a delayed electric shock. The audible range of the Redlip croaker extended from 80Hz to 800Hz with the best sensitive frequency range including little difference in hearing ability from 80Hz to 500Hz. In addition, the auditory thresholds over 800Hz increased rapidly. The mean auditory thresholds of the Redlip croaker at the test frequencies from 80Hz to 800Hz were 90.7dB, 93.4dB, 92.9dB, 94.4dB, 95.5dB and 108dB, respectively. Auditory masking for the redlip croaker was measured using masking stimuli with the spectrum level range of about 66, 71, 75dB (0dB re $1{\mu}Pa/{\sqrt{Hz}}$). According to white noise level, the auditory thresholds increased as compared with thresholds in a quiet background noise. The Auditory masking by the white noise spectrum level was stared over about 70dB within 80~500Hz. Critical ratio ranged from minimum 20.7dB to maximum 25.5dB at test frequencies of 80Hz~500Hz.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.732-743
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• 2007

Background noise is one of the major complaints of not only hearing impaired persons but also normal listeners. This paper describes the results of two experiments in which speech recognition performance was determined for listeners with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss in noise environment. First, we compared speech enhancement algorithms by evaluation speech recognition ability in various speech-to-noise ratios and types of noise. Next, speech enhancement algorithms by reducing background noise were presented and evaluated to improve speech intelligibility for sensorineural hearing impairment listeners. We tested three noise reduction methods using single-microphone, such as spectrum subtraction and companding, Wiener filter method, and maximum likelihood envelop estimation. Their responses in background noise were investigated and compared with those by the speech enhancement algorithm that presented in this paper. The methods improved speech recognition test score for the sensorineural hearing impaired listeners, but not for normal listeners. The results suggest the speech enhancement algorithm with the loudness compression can improve speech intelligibility for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.162-167
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• 2011

To identify the relationship between types of job classification (typical and atypical) and the levels of recognition of noise and the hearing threshold shift, a total of 457 workers in a cosmetic company were studied utilizing a questionnaire and the audiometric hearing test. The results were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, and general linear model, as appropriate. The results showed that atypical workers had higher level of noise recognition but had lower levels of hearing ability, noise exposure, and the knowledge on hearing loss prevention, compared with those of typical workers. The high noise level group of typical workers showed higher threshold shift levels than that of atypical workers. Significant differences were found at 4 kHz for both ears and in right ear only for hearing threshold shift after adjusting age.