The purpose of this study was to report three cases about how aided hearing threshold levels, word recognition
score (WRS) and subjective responses changed when the frequency compression (FC) function was deactivated or
activated in non-linear frequency compression hearing aid. Three subjects (6 ears) with sensorineural hearing loss
bilaterally and with no history of wearing hearing aids before participated in this study. All the participants wore
receiver-in-the canal type digital hearing aids with 20 channels. After the FC function was activated, the results
showed better aided hearing threshold levels by 5 ~ 20 dB and improved WRS by 6 ~ 14% mostly in high
frequency range compared to those of non-frequency compression (NFC). Their subjective responses of sound
qualities showed positively better compared to those of the NFC. This study strongly suggests that in case of people
whose hearing loss is severe in the high frequency range, FC hearing aids can help to result in better WRS.
However, the future study to accurately evaluate an effect of FC hearing aid used for subjects with sensorineural
hearing loss will need more elaborate design and to evaluate the changes of gain in both psychosocial and
listening-environmental aspects by using other questionnaires.