Factors Associated With Individual Differences in Clinical Measures of Speech Recognition Among the Elderly

TLDR

The study measured speech‑recognition performance in 50 elderly participants across multiple materials and listening conditions, supplemented by audiologic, auditory‑processing, and cognitive assessments, and used principal‑component and canonical analyses to examine inter‑relationships. Hearing loss explained 70–75 % of the variance in speech‑recognition performance, while auditory‑processing and cognitive measures contributed little additional variance.

Abstract

In the present study, the speech-recognition performance of 50 subjects aged 63 to 83 years was measured for a wide range of materials (nonsense syllables, monosyllabic words, sentences) and listening conditions (presentation levels of 70 and 90 dB SPL, both in quiet and in a noise background). In addition to complete audiologic evaluations, measures of auditory processing (the Test of Basic Auditory Capabilities [TBAC], Watson, 1987) and cognitive function (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised [WAIS-R], and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised [WMS-R], Wechsler, 1981, 1987) were obtained from all subjects. Principal component analyses were applied to each of the three sets of measures (speech-recognition, auditory, and cognitive) prior to examining associations among the sets using canonical analyses. Two principal components captured most of the systematic variation in performance sampled by the set of 20 speech-recognition measures. Hearing loss emerged as the single largest factor associated with individual differences in speech-recognition performance among the elderly, accounting for 70–75% of the total variance in speech-recognition performance, with the measures of auditory processing and cognitive function accounting for little or no additional variance.