Otitis media and speech-in-noise recognition in school-aged children

The present study examined the long-term consequences of otitis media (OM) on speech perception abilities in noise. 55 children with a prospective 3-monthly documented middle-ear status and hearing loss between birth and 24 months completed a 'speech-in-noise' (SPiN) test at the age of 7 years. Both hearing loss and the cumulation of uni- and bilateral OM incidents in early life were significantly correlated to the performance on the SPiN test at school age. Other background factors such as socio-economic status, language perception and cognitive development did not predict the performance on the SPiN test. Only the language production score at age 7 was also significantly related to the score on the SPiN test. The present study deals with the risk of OM in early life and its accompanied hearing loss on auditory processing, specifically speech perception in noise, up to school age.