Speech intelligibility index (SII) and sentence recognition in noise: a study in elderly with and without cognitive disorders users of hearing aids

• Grant number: 16/13847-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cecilia Martinelli
• Grantee: Erica Antero da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) is highly correlated with the audibility of speech (ANSI, 1997). The SII score varies from 0% to 100%. A value of 0% indicates that no sound of speech is audible, while a value of 100% indicates that all speech sounds are audible. The SII is used in the clinical audiological practice to verify the adjustments of the hearing aids, in that pre -determined targets acoustic gain look be achieved and since this adjustment is to quantify the percentage of speech signals to which the patient has access. It is known that not all the speech sounds are audible even with amplification according to the degree and classifications of hearing loss. When fitting an amplification system it has been designed to provide speech sounds audibility. However what each individual will do with this information will depend on many aspects such as cognitive processes, cultural level, among others. PURPOSE: Investigate the effects of cognitive processes and SII in speech recognition in noise among elderly with and without cognitive disorders. METHOD: 40 elderly, hearing aids users, will be selected, 20 with suggestive cognitive impairment results and 20 without evidence of cognitive impairment, with bilateral moderate sensorineural hearing loss . Participants will initially be submitted to the verification procedure, visible speech mapping amplified and obtained the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII). Such data will quantify in percentage, the audibility of speech sounds. It will be also measured the maximum output of the hearing aid with tone burst at 85 dB SPL. Next, the elderly will be submitted to the Sentences List test in Portuguese (LSP) proposed by Costa in 1998. This test provide the signal/noise ratio where the patient can recognize 50% of the sentences presented in a 65 dB SPL speech spectrum noise After data collection the results will be submitted to statistical analysis.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ERICA ANTERO DA SILVA; LORETTA FABIANNE NIGRI; MARIA CECÍLIA MARTINELLI IORIO. Índice de inteligibilidade de fala – Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) e reconhecimento de sentenças no ruído. Estudo em idosos com e sem alteração cognitiva usuários de próteses auditivas. Audiol., Commun. Res., v. 23, 2018-12-03. (16/13847-0)