Speech intelligibility with and without noise in individuals exposed to electronic music

Audiometry is the main way with which hearing is evaluated, because it is a universal and standardized test. Speech tests are difficult to standardize due to the variables involved, their performance in the presence of competitive noise is of great importance.

To characterize speech intelligibility in silence and in competitive noise from individuals exposed to electronically amplified music.

It was performed with 20 university students who presented normal hearing thresholds. The speech recognition rate (SRR) was performed after fourteen hours of sound rest after the exposure to electronically amplified music and once again after sound rest, being studied in three stages: without competitive noise, in the presence of Babble-type competitive noise, in monotic listening, in signal/noise ratio of +5 dB and with the signal/noise ratio of 5 dB.

There was greater damage in the SRR after exposure to the music and with competitive noise, and as the signal/noise ratio decreases, the performance of individuals in the test also decreased.

The inclusion of competitive noise in the speech tests in the audiological routine is important, because it represents the real disadvantage experienced by individuals in daily listening.