The impact of speech rate on sentence recognition by elderly individuals.
Difficulty understanding speech, particularly in situations unfavorable to communication, is a common complaint among elderly individuals.


OBJECTIVE
to verify the variables connected to hearing loss and stimulus presentation rate and their impact on the speech recognition skills of elderly subjects in quiet and noisy environments.


METHODS
this case-control study included two groups of subjects (31 elderly subjects with normal hearing and 26 with hearing loss) exposed to the List of Sentences in Portuguese and the Slowed List of Sentences in Portuguese tests. Sentence recognition indices were calculated for tests done against noisy and quiet backgrounds at a normal and reduced speech rate. Data sets were submitted to statistical analysis.


RESULTS
elderly subjects from both groups had better test results when sentences were played at a slower rate. Statistically significant difference was seen for both groups when the tests were carried out on a quiet background and for the group with hearing loss when tested on a noisy background.


CONCLUSIONS
regardless of their peripheral hearing, the elderly subjects included in this study were more able to recognize speech when sentences were played at a slower rate against a quiet background. When sentences were played against a noisy background, the elderly subjects with hearing loss had more significant performance improvements than the ones with normal hearing when sentences were played at a slower rate.
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria.
Alexandre Hundertmarck
AH
Lessa
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Departamento de Fonoaudiologia.
Maristela Julio
MJ
Costa
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods*