Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Peer-reviewed study (lecture hall, older adults)

Evaluation of Speech Perception via the Use of Hearing Loops and Telecoils

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/alfakir-2015/ · record checked 14 October 2026

  • Alfakir R, Holmes AE, Kricos PB, Gaeta L, Martin S
  • Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine 1:2333721415591935 (SAGE)

Independent (University of Florida and University of Oklahoma; the authors report no financial support and no conflicts of interest; Contacta, a loop maker, lent the field strength meter)

Summary

A small randomized repeated-measures study comparing speech understanding through hearing aid microphones and through telecoils with an installed hearing loop, in quiet and in noise.

Key findings

  • The Method's second paragraph describes six randomly chosen seating locations, positions measured from a reference point in the room centre, and field-strength checks with a Contacta Loop-FSM before the study. It reports all six within ±3 dB and cites ANSI/ISA-62382-2012; this is the article's stated reference, not a verified identification of the applicable hearing-loop standard. The Acknowledgments confirm Contacta lent the meter.
  • The Method says participants were recruited from a retirement community centre. The Discussion opening paragraph explicitly places the looped lecture hall at that centre; the article does not name the centre or state its country or measurement dates.
  • Twelve experienced hearing aid users aged 62 to 89, recruited from a retirement community, sat in a lecture hall with an installed loop whose field strength measured within ±3 dB at six seats. Ten had working telecoils; the other two had hearing aids without a telecoil option and used a loop receiver for the telecoil conditions (Method).
  • Words (CNC) and sentences (BKB) were presented at 70 dB SPL in quiet and with multi-talker babble at +10 dB SNR (measured at the centre of the seating), in random order, with each participant's microphone and telecoil settings.
  • Mean word scores in noise rose from 25% with the microphone to 79% with the telecoil, and in quiet from 64% to 84%; sentence scores in noise rose from 83% to 99%. The telecoil advantage was statistically significant in both quiet and noise.
  • Participants rated listening effort lower and confidence in their answers higher with the telecoil. Seating position affected scores; from earlier work in the same room, the authors estimated the acoustic SNR at about +6 dB in the front seats and +15 dB in the back seats.
  • The authors recommend that telecoils be offered to older hearing aid users and that audiologists advocate for more loops in public places.

Limits

Twelve participants from one community, of whom only seven returned for the second session; no audiometric data were available; one hall and one loop. The study compares a loop with the hearing aid microphone, not with other assistive listening systems, and does not report how the telecoil programs were set.

Read the original

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5119799

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Alfakir R, Holmes AE, Kricos PB, Gaeta L, Martin S. Evaluation of Speech Perception via the Use of Hearing Loops and Telecoils. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine 1:2333721415591935 (SAGE). 8 July 2015. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5119799/ (accessed 14 October 2026).

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