title: Measuring the ability of school children with a history of otitis media to understand everyday speech.
abstract: The present study compared the ability of school-aged children with and without a history of otitis media (OM) to understand everyday speech in noise using the University of Queensland Understanding of Everyday Speech Test (UQUEST). Participants were 484 children (246 boys, 238 girls) attending Grade 3 (272, mean age = 8.25 yr., SD = 0.43) and Grade 4 (212, mean age = 9.28 yr., SD = 0.41) at 19 primary schools in Brisbane metropolitan and Sunshine Coast schools. Children selected for inclusion were native speakers of English with normal hearing on the day of testing and had no reported physical or behavioral impairments. The children were divided into three groups according to the number of episodes of OM since birth. The results showed no significant differences in speech scores across the participant groups. However, a significant difference in mean speech scores was found across the grades and the noise conditions. Although children with a history of OM performed equally well at a group level when compared to the controls, they exhibited a large range of abilities in speech comprehension within the same group.
authors.affiliation: Division of Audiology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. t.keogh@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Tegan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Keogh
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kei
authors.forename: Carlie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cahill
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wilce
authors.forename: Prasanth
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kondamuri
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marinac
mesh_terms: D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000150:complications*; D038781:Otoscopy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013067:Speech Perception