Speech Recognition in Noise for Adults With Normal Hearing: Age-Normative Performance for AzBio, BKB-SIN, and...

Characterize performance for adults aged 20 to 79 years with normal hearing on tasks of AzBio, Bamford-Kowal-Bench speech-in-noise (BKB-SIN), quick speech-in-noise (QuickSIN), and acoustic Quick Spectral Modulation Detection (QSMD) in the sound field.

Cochlear implant (CI) program.

Eighty-one adults with normal hearing and cognitive function were recruited evenly across four age groups (20-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79 yr).

Subjects completed AzBio sentence recognition testing in quiet and in five signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs: +10, +5, 0, -5, -10 dB), as well as the BKB-SIN, QuickSIN, and QSMD tasks.

AzBio, BKB-SIN, QuickSIN, and acoustic QSMD scores were analyzed to characterize typical sound field performance in an older adult population with normal hearing.

AzBio sentence recognition performance approached ceiling for sentences presented at ≥ 0 dB SNR with mean scores ranging from 3.5% at -10 dB SNR to 99% at +10 dB SNR. Mean QuickSIN SNR-50 was -0.02. Mean BKB-SIN SNR-50 was -1.31 dB. Mean acoustic QSMD score was 88%. Performance for all measures decreased with age.

Adults with age-normative hearing achieve ceiling-level performance for AzBio sentence recognition at SNRs used for clinical cochlear implant and/or hearing aid testing. Thus, these tasks are not inherently contraindicated for older listeners. Older adults with normal hearing, however, demonstrated greater deficits for speech in noise compared to younger listeners-an effect most pronounced at negative SNRs. Lastly, BKB-SIN data obtained in the sound field replicated previous normative data for only the youngest age group, suggesting that new norms should be considered for older populations.