Background noise is a significant
contributor to poor speech understanding for listeners with normal hearing. It creates an even greater challenge for listeners with hearing loss. Those with
hearing loss who use hearing aids often complain of background noise.
Specifically, background noise is the main complaint among hearing aid users
when trying to follow a conversation. Half of the conversations occur in
environments with some background present.
The acceptable noise level (ANL) is
a measure that attempts to quantify listener preference of background noise
when listening to speech. Its use can contribute to clinicians and those with hearing loss by predictively differentiating full time hearing aid wearers from part time wearers or those who reject hearing aids. Thus, the ANL can be a
valuable tool for the fitting of and counseling related to hearing aids.
However, the ANL is not widely utilized by clinicians in the field. One of the
possible reasons for this may be a factor of convenience in performing the ANL
measurement with an audiometer alone, as a test easier for clinicians to
administer may be more acceptable.