title: Respirator performance ratings for speech intelligibility.
abstract: A respirator degrades speech intelligibility and thus interferes with the ability of the wearer to communicate. The magnitude of this degradation is not well-studied and can vary as a function of numerous parameters. This study investigated the performance degradation of speech intelligibility in low-level noise for different speaker-listener distances and message sets (single words or predictable sentences) that occurred while wearing a respirator compared with not wearing a respirator. Thirteen speaker-listener pairs with normal hearing and speech were used. Speaker-listener separation distances were 0.61, 1.22, 1.83, 2.44, 3.05, and 3.66 m (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 ft) for the respirator condition and 1.22, 2.44, 3.05, 6.1, 9.15, and 12.2 m (4, 8, 10, 20, 30, and 40 ft) for the no-respirator condition. The means of the scores were used to determine the speech performance rating for both the single-word and sentence comprehension tests. The performance rating expresses the percentage of performance that can be expected while wearing a respirator compared with not wearing a respirator. Scores were interpolated linearly at distances at which no data were obtained. As expected, the speech performance rating was higher for the sentence comprehension test than for the single-word comprehension test at each distance. At a distance of 12.2 m, the speech performance rating for the sentence comprehension was 70%. For the single-word comprehension test, the speech performance rating was zero for distances greater than 9.1 m.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Resources Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Coyne
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Yeni-Komshian
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Dooly
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D009623:Noise, Occupational / Q000009:adverse effects; D012134:Respiratory Protective Devices / Q000592:standards*; D013065:Speech Intelligibility