Inner ear secrets: study aims to predict who will hear better with hearing aids

This completed study enrolled 186 people with mild to moderate hearing loss to understand how damage to inner ear sensory cells and auditory neurons affects speech understanding, especially in noisy environments. Participants were fitted with hearing aids and tested on speech recognition. The goal was to see if inner ear health could predict hearing aid success. The study did not test a new treatment, but aimed to improve how hearing aids are prescribed.