Self-Assessed Hearing Handicap in Older Adults with Poorer-than-Predicted Speech Recognition in Noise

• Published in: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research language, and hearing research, 2017-01, Vol.60 (1), p.251-262
• Main Authors: Eckert, Mark A, Matthews, Lois J, Dubno, Judy R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustics; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Audiometry, Pure-Tone; Auditory Perception; Colleges & universities; Comparative analysis; Diagnostic Self Evaluation; Disability Evaluation; Elderly; Emotions; Female; Health aspects; Hearing; Hearing Impairments; Hearing loss; Hearing Loss - diagnosis; Hearing Loss - psychology; Humans; Listening; Listening Comprehension; Male; Middle age; Middle Aged; Noise; Older Adults; Older people; Pattern Recognition, Physiological; Quality of life; Ratings & rankings; Recognition (Psychology); Regression Analysis; Self evaluation; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Speech; Speech Perception; Speech recognition; Voice recognition; Voice response technology; Workloads
• ISSN: 1092-4388; 1558-9102
• DOI: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-H-16-0011

Purpose: Even older adults with relatively mild hearing loss report hearing handicap, suggesting that hearing handicap is not completely explained by reduced speech audibility. Method: We examined the extent to which self-assessed ratings of hearing handicap using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE; Ventry & Weinstein, 1982) were significantly associated with measures of speech recognition in noise that controlled for differences in speech audibility. Results: One hundred sixty-two middle-aged and older adults had HHIE total scores that were significantly associated with audibility-adjusted measures of speech recognition for low-context but not high-context sentences. These findings were driven by HHIE items involving negative feelings related to communication difficulties that also captured variance in subjective ratings of effort and frustration that predicted speech recognition. The average pure-tone threshold accounted for some of the variance in the association between the HHIE and audibility-adjusted speech recognition, suggesting an effect of central and peripheral auditory system decline related to elevated thresholds. Conclusion: The accumulation of difficult listening experiences appears to produce a self-assessment of hearing handicap resulting from (a) reduced audibility of stimuli, (b) declines in the central and peripheral auditory system function, and (c) additional individual variation in central nervous system function.