Correlational analysis of speech audiometric scores, hearing loss, age, and cognitive abilities in the elderly

A battery of speech audiometric measures and a battery of neuropsychological measures were administered to 200 elderly individuals with varying degrees of pure-tone sensitivity loss. Results were analyzed from the standpoint of the extent to which variation in speech audiometric scores could be predicted by knowledge of pure-tone hearing level, age, and cognitive status. For the four monotic test procedures (PB, SPIN-Low, SPIN-High, and SSI) degree of hearing loss bore the strongest relation to speech recognition score. Cognitive status accounted for little of the variance in any of these four speech audiometric scores. In the case of the single dichotic test procedure (DSI), both degree of hearing loss and speed of mental processing, as measured by the Digit Symbol subtest of the WAIS-R, accounted for significant variance. Finally, age accounted for significant unique variance only in the SSI score.