Speech recognition in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Hearing loss can negatively influence the communication performance of individuals, who should be evaluated with suitable material and in situations of listening close to those found in everyday life. OBJECTIVE: To analyze and compare the performance of patients with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss in speech recognition tests carried out in silence and with noise, according to the variables ear (right and left) and type of stimulus presentation. METHODS: The study included 19 right-handed individuals with mild-to-moderate symmetrical bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, submitted to the speech recognition test with words in different modalities and speech test with white noise and pictures. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between right and left ears in any of the tests. The mean number of correct responses in the speech recognition test with pictures, live voice, and recorded monosyllables was 97.1%, 85.9%, and 76.1%, respectively, whereas after the introduction of noise, the performance decreased to 72.6% accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: The best performances in the Speech Recognition Percentage Index were obtained using monosyllabic stimuli, represented by pictures presented in silence, with no significant differences between the right and left ears. After the introduction of competitive noise, there was a decrease in individuals' performance.