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Biomedical subjects

T S Kapteyn

Publications and source records attributed to T S Kapteyn.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Satisfaction with fitted hearing aids. I. An analysis of technical information.

By means of a questionnaire, satisfaction with fitted hearing aids has been judged 6 months after prescription. An analysis of the information obtained, together with some audiological features of 155 patients with hearing aids is reported. The influence of the most important factors is discussed and the findings are compared with those of other surveys. The relationship between satisfaction, and the degree of hearing loss and discrimination loss is very weak. The conclusion is that the population consists of sub-populations in which different criteria apply to hearing aid satisfaction. These criteria may be more closely related to psycho-social factors than to technical aspects. A second part of the study is devoted to that subject.

Adult↗

Satisfaction with fitted hearing aids. II. An investigation into the influence of psycho-social factors.

In the first article an analysis of technical information about hearing aid satisfaction, obtained by a questionnaire, was presented. To obtain complementary information, interviews were held with patients who showed a low satisfaction. This has led to an inventory of the factors in the psycho-social field of importance in the process of rehabilitation. The questionnaire has been modified and 165 hearing aid patients have been evaluated with this updated questionnaire. Analysis of the information obtained shows that the answers given intercorrelate well. It may be surmised that the approach is based on a sort of "attitude" incorporated in the given score and defining the hearing aid satsifaction. The audiometric features of the patients intercorrelate as well. It is surprising that the correlation between the audiometric features and the satisfaction with the aid is low, and this is discussed. The question arises as to what degree the routine audiometric tests reveal the relevant features and the impaired hearing. Where it seems to be impossible to use the available audiometric features for making a prediction about the satisfaction, the conclusion is drawn that full attention must be given to training in the use of the hearing aid.

Aged↗

The mechanism of physiological height vertigo. I. Theoretical approach and psychophysics.

A theory is presented supporting a geometrical explanation of physiological height vertigo as a 'distance vertigo' created by visual destabilization of posture when the distance between the observer and visible stationary contrasts becomes critically large. Though height vertigo is generally regarded as a psychopathological process, we hypothesize that it might instead result from an intersensory mismatch when visual information is at variance with vestibular and proprioceptive inputs. Psychophysical experiments confirming the hypothesis revealed that: 1) height vertigo is clearly related to body position, being the greatest in the upright stance; 2) it is the eye-object distance rather than the direction of gaze which is critical; 3) there is a saturation of height vertigo magnitude. Subjective vertigo increases with increasing altitude only below 20 metres. Physiological 'distance vertigo' must be distinguished from psychological 'acrophobia'. Its postural consequences may be ameliorated by strategies gleaned from knowledge of its mechanism such as providing nearby stationary contrasts in the peripheral visual field.

Adult↗

The mechanism of physiological height vertigo. II. Posturography.

In order to validate the hypothesis that height vertigo is based on visual destabilization of free stance when the distance between eye and object becomes critically large, several of its consequences were demonstrated in posturographic experiments: (1) Visual signals conflicting with simultaneous vestibular and somatosensory inputs provided by sinusoidally tilting rooms may destabilize postural sway in the fore-aft as well as in the lateral direction. (2) In natural surrounding sway amplitudes increase with increasing eye-object distance up to 5 meters. Thus, teleologically, subjective height vertigo serves as an appropriate warning signal to withdraw the body from a stimulus situation inducing postural imbalance. (3) Postural height vertigo problems can be alleviated (a) by adjusting the head relative to the gravitational vector, and (b) by the presence of nearby stationary contrasts in the visual periphery according to the dominance of retinal periphery for dynamic spatial orientation.

Adult↗

Factors in the appreciation of a prosthetic rehabilitation.

6 months after the prescription of a hearing aid, the appreciation of the aid was judged in a group of 160 patients by a questionnaire. The analysis of the answers in combination with the audiometric features is reported. The answers given in a questionnaire have a good interrelation and agree with the score given for the aid. The audiometric features also showed a good correlation for every one but only a weak relation was found with the subjects' appreciations of the aid. The implications of this hearing aid evaluation for the improvement of the fitting procedure are discussed.

Adult↗

Effect of time scale modification of speech on the speech recognition threshold in noise for elderly listeners.

The effect of time scale modification of speech on the speech recognition threshold in noise (SRTN) was investigated for a group of 44 elderly subjects, varying in age from 56 to 88 years with sloping mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing losses. Subjects' pure-tone average thresholds at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Hz (PTA1) ranged from 3 to 58 dB. The study confirms the well-known fact that speech recognition in noise deteriorates with increasing age. Furthermore, time-compressing speech results in an even greater influence of age on the SRTN. The apparent age effect on SRTN values referenced to SRTN in the control condition is mostly caused indirectly by the significant correlation between age and PTA1, although there was a slight tendency for age to have a greater independent effect on relative SRTN values when the amount of time compression increased. The percentage of explained variance in relative SRTN values by the subject variables in this study was limited, indicating that there are other factors not investigated in this study (e.g. cochlear mechanisms, short-term memory, feature extractors) that significantly influence the effect of time compression on SRTN.

Age Factors↗

Factors in subjective hearing disability.

This report describes an approach to identify different factors in hearing disability. On the basis of interviews and case studies, the Amsterdam Inventory for Auditory Disability and Handicap was developed. It consists of 30 questions, dealing with a variety of everyday listening situations. Reports of 274 hearing-impaired subjects are presented. Item and factor analysis on the questions resulted in five factors, interpreted as five basic auditory disabilities: distinction of sounds, intelligibility in noise, auditory localization, intelligibility in quiet and detection of sounds. Investigation of one excluded item showed that 'intolerance of noise' may be a sixth aspect.

Adolescent↗

The relationships between self-reported hearing disability and measures of auditory disability.

Although required for many practical purposes, adequate measures of hearing disability are not yet available. In an attempt to identify a set of performance tests for predicting hearing disability in daily life the relationship between self-reported disability scores and measures of auditory disability was examined. The Amsterdam Inventory was completed by 51 respondents aged 30 to 70 years who also performed on various tests. Earlier factor analysis of the inventory scores resulted in the distinction of five aspects of auditory disability. Stepwise multiple regression analysis in the present study shows that the tests describe and differentiate quite well between these five aspects. Multiple correlation coefficients range from R = 0.60 to R = 0.74.

Adult↗