Hearing in Noise Test for OIder AduIts with Age-reIated Hearing Loss / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the speech recognition ability in noise enviroment in older adults with age-related hearing loss and to discuss the influences of age ,hearing loss and cognitive function on the ability of speech recognition in noise enviroment .Methods A total of 90 older adults aged over 60 years at the hearing clinic of Xinhua hospital were divided into three groups according to the age ,which were 60~69 y group (88 ears) ,70~79 y group (64 ears) ,> 79 y group (28 ears) .All the participants completed pure tone audiometry ,the Mandarin hearing in noise test (MHINT) and the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) .The pure tone average hearing threshold (PTA) ,signal-to -noise ratio (SNR) of MHINT and MMSE scores were obtained .We used the statis_tical software SPSS 17 .0 to analyze the correlations among age ,PTA ,adaptive SNR and MMSE scores .ResuIts ①PTA and SNR increased with the age .The difference of PTA and SNR for different age groups was statistically sig_nificant (P<0 .01) .②The difference SNR among different PTA groups were significant (P<0 .01) ,and when the influence of MMSE scores was controlled the difference was still significant .There was a significant linear correlation between PTA and SNR (r=0 .326 ,P<0 .01) .MMSE scores decreased with the increasing of PTA ,and there was also a linear correlation between PTA and MMSE scores (-0 .187 ,P<0 .05) .③Adaptive SNR and MMSE scores were correlated (r= -0 .201 ,P<0 .01) ,but there was no significant linear relationship .Besides ,SNR of the cog_nitive function impairment group (<27 points) was significantly greater than that of the normal cognitive function group (27~30 points) (P<0 .01) .However ,among the three PTA groups ,the differences were not statistically significant .ConcIusion The hearing in noise test reflects the ability of speech recognition in noise enviroment in ol_der adults ,and can be used to assess the hearing functions in elder .Speech recognition in noise ,peripheral hearing loss and cognitive functions are relevant .Cognitive functions have an influence on the evaluation of the hearing func_tion for older adults .