OBJECTIVES: Listening difficulties (LiD) can occur despite normal hearing thresholds, affecting speech understanding in complex environments and increasing listening effort. Audiologists have increasingly considered hearing aids for this population despite supporting evidence remaining unclear....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Evidence on low-gain hearing aids for people with normal audiograms but listening difficulties is still emerging; no practice change is warranted yet, but audiologists should watch this literature as it directly concerns an underserved population.
A growing number of patients present with listening difficulties despite normal audiograms, and this review maps what is known about amplification as a management option for this challenging group.
- 01Scoping review of listening-related outcomes of low-gain hearing aids in adults with normal hearing thresholds.
- 02Targets individuals with listening difficulties not explained by conventional audiometry (e.g., hidden hearing loss or APD).
- 03Published in International Journal of Audiology (2026); represents one of the first systematic mappings of this topic.
- 04Scoping design means it charts the evidence landscape rather than pooling effect sizes.
- 05Findings will inform whether low-gain amplification should be formally evaluated in RCTs for this population.
Low-gain hearing aids may improve listening-related outcomes in individuals with normal hearing thresholds who have listening difficulties.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42816062
- DOI
- 10.1080/14992027.2026.2735516.
- Journal
- International Journal of Audiology
- Publication type
- review
- Evidence level
- 2a
- Population
- Individuals with normal hearing thresholds who experience listening difficulties
- Intervention
- Low-gain hearing aids
Primary outcomes
Listening-related outcomes (e.g., speech understanding, self-reported listening effort)