• 보건행정학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.162-167
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• 2018

Background: In this research, we conducted an analysis to grasp the relationship between hearing and quality of life and to prepare effective troubleshooting. Methods: In this study, we analyzed using the data of the 6th term of the National Health and Nutrition Survey of the Disease Management Headquarters. And, out of 7,380 people, 3,598 adults over the age of 40 years who participated in the hearing test were selected as final research subjects and analyzed. Results: It was confirmed that the result of the analysis affects the quality of life based on hearing. The quality of life associated with hearing loss was unpleasant, motor ability, anxiety/depression, and everyday life affected in order of self management. And factors having an effect on the quality of life of the study subjects were found to be gender, elderly, unmarried, low hearing, low household income, absence of economic activity, and low teaching standards. Conclusion: The conclusion is that strengthening education for realistic management and prevention rather than treatment for unconditional hearing impairment will overcome low self esteem and loneliness and alleviate any uncomfortable life that people with hearing loss give. It is expected to be possible.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제25권4호
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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.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제25권4호
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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.

• 한국치위생학회지
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.11-17
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between noise awareness, hearing ability, and dental hygiene performance in dental hygienists. Methods: The subjects were 234 dental hygienists in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon. The questionnaire consisted of 3 questions of general characteristics of the subjects, 1 question of noise awareness, 3 questions of hearing ability, 5 questions of dental hygiene performance, 1 question of noise reduction necessity, and 2 questions of noise control. Noise awareness, dental hygiene performance, and noise reduction necessity were measured by Likert 5 scale. Cronbach's alpha was 0.825 in dental hygiene performance reliability. Results: There was a significant difference in noise recognition by age(p<0.01) and working career(p<0.05). Those who pumped up the higher TV volume accounted for 31.6% and 3.0% had hearing impairment in the regular health checkup. 3.4% of the respondents complained of hearing loss, ear fluid, and equilibrium problem diagnosed by the doctors. The relationship between the type of workplace environment and task performance showed a significant difference. Those who work in the dental hospitals had high score of 3.43, while those who work in dental clinics had 3.20(p<0.05). The increased level of noise recognition affected the task performance and it is necessary to reduce the noise level. More try must be focused on the noise exposure prevention. Conclusions: In order to reduce the problems due to noise and improve their quality of life, it is necessary to change the noise recognition in the work place.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제28권6호
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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.

• 음성과학
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.155-167
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• 2006

Hearing impairment children possess poor underlying perceptual knowledge of the sound system and show delayed development of segmental organization of that system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between phonological awareness ability and word identification ability in hearing impaired children. 14 children with moderately severe hearing loss participated in this study. All tasks were individually administered. Phonological awareness tests consisted of syllable blending, syllable segmentation, syllable deletion, body-coda discrimination, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation and phoneme deletion. Close-set Monosyllabic Words(12 items) and lists 1 and 2 of open-set Monosyllabic Words in EARS-K were examined for word identification. Results of this study were as follows: First, from the phonological awareness task, the close-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with the coda discrimination, phoneme blending and phoneme deletion. The open-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with phoneme blending, phoneme deletion and phoneme segmentation. Second, from the level of phonological awareness, the close-set word identification showed a high positive correlation with the level of body-coda awareness and phoneme awareness while the open-set word identification showed a high positive correlation only with the level of phoneme awareness.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.457-466
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• 1997

청력장애인이 전화상의 말에 대한 청취력을 향상시킬수 있는 보청기능이 있는 전화기를 개발하였다. 최근 청력장애인이 늘어나고 있으며 생산자로서의 사회참여 욕구 또한 늘어나고 있는데 이들은 자신의 핸디캡을 메워줄 보조기기를 강력히 원하고 있다. 보청기능 전화기는 음성으로써 외부 정보를 획득할 수 있는 기본적인 통신 보조기기의 한 형태이다. 본 연구팀은 청력장애인의 청력특성을 분석하고 전화기에 청력 보상법을 적용함으로써 보청기능이 있는 새로운 모델의 전화기를 개발하였고 3가지 분야의 시험(전기적 시험, 단어 인지도 시험, 사용자 시험)을 수행하여 이 전화기의 유용성을 평가하였다. 새 전화기는 4개의 대역통과필터를 가지고 있으며 각 밴드의 중심주파수는 전화라인의 특성과 심리음향학적인 특성을 고려하여 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 Hz로 설정하였다. 청력장애인은 전화기의 증폭특성을 자신의 청력에 맞도록 피팅(fitting)할 수 있다. 즉 자신의 손실된 청력을 잘 보상하도록 4개 필터밴드에 대한 볼륨조절을 개별적으로 조정할 수 있다. 전화기의 전체 이득은 250~32000Hz 대역내에서 20㏈ 이상이다. 시험결과 새 모델의 전화기가 기존의 전화기보다 청력장애인의 전화음성 이해도를 향상 시킨다고 증명되었다. 향후 측음 및 잡음 억제, 주파수 대역분리, 청력패턴 보상과 심리음향적 라우드니스(loudness)보상에 대한 연구가 필요하며 공학과 임상 분야에서의 청력장애인의 언어 이지특성 연구를 통하여 더욱 발전된 전화기가 개발될 수 있다고 판단된다.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.197-203
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Many studies have reported no benefit of sound localization, but improved speech understanding in noise after treating patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). Furthermore, their performances provided a large individual difference. The present study aimed to measure the ability of speech perception and gap detection in noise for the SSD patients to better understand their hearing nature. Subjects and Methods: Nine SSD patients with different onset and period of hearing deprivation and 20 young adults with normal hearing and simulated conductive hearing loss as the control groups conducted speech perception in noise (SPIN) and Gap-In-Noise (GIN) tests. The SPIN test asked how many presented sentences were understood at the +5 and -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The GIN test was asked to find the shortest gap in white noise with different lengths in the gap. Results: Compared to the groups with normal hearing and simulated instant hearing loss, the SSD group showed much poor performance in both SPIN and GIN tests while supporting central auditory plasticity of the SSD patients. Rather than a longer period of deafness, the large individual variance indicated that the congenital SSD patients showed better performance than the acquired SSD patients in two measurements. Conclusions: The results suggested that comprehensive assessments should be implemented before any treatment of the SSD patient considering their onset time and etiology, although these findings need to be generalized with a large sample size.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.197-203
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Many studies have reported no benefit of sound localization, but improved speech understanding in noise after treating patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). Furthermore, their performances provided a large individual difference. The present study aimed to measure the ability of speech perception and gap detection in noise for the SSD patients to better understand their hearing nature. Subjects and Methods: Nine SSD patients with different onset and period of hearing deprivation and 20 young adults with normal hearing and simulated conductive hearing loss as the control groups conducted speech perception in noise (SPIN) and Gap-In-Noise (GIN) tests. The SPIN test asked how many presented sentences were understood at the +5 and -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The GIN test was asked to find the shortest gap in white noise with different lengths in the gap. Results: Compared to the groups with normal hearing and simulated instant hearing loss, the SSD group showed much poor performance in both SPIN and GIN tests while supporting central auditory plasticity of the SSD patients. Rather than a longer period of deafness, the large individual variance indicated that the congenital SSD patients showed better performance than the acquired SSD patients in two measurements. Conclusions: The results suggested that comprehensive assessments should be implemented before any treatment of the SSD patient considering their onset time and etiology, although these findings need to be generalized with a large sample size.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.57-63
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• 2020

바이노럴 비트는 양이에 도달한 소리의 주파수 차이로 유발된 주관적인 맥놀이 현상이다. 물리적으로 맥놀이의 세기는 주파수가 다른 두 신호의 크기에 영향을 받는다. 따라서 바이노럴 비트는 좌우 청력의 차이에 따라 영향을 받을 것으로 예상된다. 본 연구에서는 청력에 따른 효과를 평가하기 위해, 정상 청력을 가진 34명의 피실험자가 한 쪽 귀에 기준음[440 Hz, 50 dB Sound Pressure Level(SPL)], 반대 측 귀에 주파수가 다른 제시음(450 Hz)을 SPL을 감소하며 들을 때, 주관적으로 느끼는 바이노럴 비트 의 세기의 변화를 Semantic Differential Method(SDM) 이용하여 평가하도록 했다. 실험 결과 피실험자가 느끼는 바이노럴 비트의 세기는, 좌우 소리의 SPL 차이가 역치(2.2 dB)보다 크면, 좌우 소리의 SPL 차이가 증가함에 따라 지속적으로 유의하게 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 바이노럴 비트 효과를 최대로 하기 위해 좌우 청력 차이를 적절한 범위(예. 2.2 dB) 이내로 유지하는 것이 필요하다는 것을 시사한다.