Relationship between Mandarin speech reception thresholds and pure-tone thresholds in the geriatric population.
OBJECTIVE
In the geriatric population, the reliability of pure-tone threshold (PTT) is sometimes poorer than that in young adults because of various reasons. This study assessed the relationship between Mandarin speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and PTTs in the aged and developed SRT as a measure for corroborating PTT.


METHODS
This prospective study enrolled 46 consecutive subjects over 60 years of age. The results of SRT and PTT were collected from one ear randomly selected from each subject. Simple linear and multiple regressions were used to determine the correlation and linear regression coefficients between SRTs and PTTs at various frequencies.


RESULTS
In the simple regression analysis, the correlation coefficient was highest at 1000 Hz (r = 0.949) and 500 Hz (r = 0.922), followed by 250 Hz (r = 0.850) and 2000 Hz (r = 0.792). In the multiple regression model with SRT as the dependent variable and PTTs as predictor variables, the resultant multiple correlation coefficient R was 0.967, while R2 was 0.936. In this model, PTTs at the frequencies of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz contributed significantly to the variance in SRTs with p values of 0.029 and < 0.001, respectively. These results demonstrated that the Mandarin SRT is strongly associated with PTTs at the frequencies of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz.


CONCLUSIONS
This study established the agreement between Mandarin SRTs and PTTs in the low tone area of speech frequencies in the geriatric population. In clinical settings, SRT test can be rapidly and easily performed and is relatively inexpensive. It is a vital indicator of the accuracy of PTT measurement.
Chien
Chih-Hung
CH
Department of Otolaryngology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, 201 Section 2 Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
Tu
Tzong-Yang
TY
Chien
Shu-Feng
SF
Li
Angela Chung-I
AC
Yang
Mei-Jan
MJ
Shiao
An-Suey
AS
Wang
Yi-Fen
YF
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000379:methods*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods*