Analysis of salivary cortisol levels and listening effort in school-age children with unilateral hearing loss: investigating the impact of hearing aid use

Abstract Arm: Listening effort is one of the consequences of Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL). The aim of this clinical study was to assess the listening effort of school-aged children with UHL with salivary cortisol collection and a behavioral dual task assessment, with and without the use of hearing aid (HA) technology. Results: There was no difference between speech recognition in silence and noise. Both conditions did not present statistically significant results with and without hearing aids. Greater statistically significant results (p= 0.013) were found before the HA fitting with the secondary set of dual-task. After the hearing aid fitting, a decreased response time was noted, and this result was statistically significant (p= 0.019) when compared to the response time before the HA fitting. Conclusion: Results suggested that children fit with a HA in their affected ear performed better in the dual-task condition than without use of a hearing aid. Most participants showed a better response rate in the secondary task, mainly with regards to the number of correct answers and a better response time. Overall, a decrease of listening effort in the dual-task condition was found. Salivary cortisol measures of listening effort with our participants did not show any statistically significant findings after the use of a HA.