Speech recognition in noise in elderly users of sound amplification monaural and binaural

• Grant number: 11/21744-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cecilia Martinelli
• Grantee: Vanessa de Oliveira Gomes Pinto
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

According to estimates by the United Nations Organization, the increasing number of elderly will account for half of the population growth between 2005 and 2050. Advancing age is accompanied by the aging of the senses, leading to sensory deprivation, among them presbycusis (sensorineural hearing loss), which brings a series of consequences, such as problems in understanding speech in the presence and absence of noise, isolation, prejudice in family interactions, among others, affecting the quality of life and the integration of the individual in society. The use of amplification in these cases can improve sound localization, isolation and speech recognition, because it brings the re-establishment of the loudness. The perceptual acclimatization, adaptation period of hearing aid is related to the improvement in performance on tests of speech recognition, this is due to the plasticity of the auditory system over time, due to the reintroduction of auditory stimulation from the amplification. Among the tests for assessing the performance of users of hearing aids are the evidences of speech recognition with word lists. However, it is of paramount importance, the use of lists of sentences for the user ratings of hearing aids, in order that the sentences are the verbal stimuli that match more closely to the spectral characteristics and contexts of everyday speech. For this purpose, lists of sentences in Portuguese were developed to determine thresholds for speech recognition. Objective: the objective of this research is to evaluate speech recognition in noise with and without hearing aids in open field in the elderly users of monaural and binaural hearing aids. Material and Methods: 40 subjects will be included, aged between 60 and 90 years with post-lingual neusossensorial hearing loss from mild to moderate, users of monaural and binaural hearing aids, with non-linear amplification. Patients will undergo a medical history and audiological data will also be noted. Finally, the list of sentences in noise will be applied by the Portuguese Sentence Test.(AU)