Abstract:
A small proportion of hearing-impaired older adults reports hearing deterioration during their annual otologic examination without exhibiting any concomitant changes in audiometric or otologic results. This study examined the ability of a self-report questionnaire and a battery of speech perception tests to distinguish these subjects from a set of matched subjects who had no reported hearing deterioration. The Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (CPHI) and three performance-based speech perception measures [objective and subjective speech reception threshold tests (SRT) and a suprathreshold nonsense word task] were included in the test battery. Responses to some specific items of the CPHI and the difference between the subjective and objective SRTs in noise differed between listeners with reported hearing deterioration and those without. Those who reported deterioration underestimated their hearing ability to hear in noise more than the control group. They were also more aware of their communication difficulties in some communication settings. [Work supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Health Canada, and Unitron Industries Ltd.]