COVID-19 and Deafness: Impact of Face Masks on Speech Perception

The COVID-19 pandemic has made wearing face masks a common habit in public places. Several reports have underlined the increased difficulties encountered by deaf people in speech comprehension, resulting in a higher risk of social isolation and psychological distress.

To address the detrimental effect of different types of face masks on speech perception, according to the listener hearing level and background noise.

Quasi-experimental cross-sectional study.

Thirty patients were assessed: 16 with normal hearing [NH], and 14 hearing-impaired [HI] with moderate hearing loss.

A speech perception test (TAUV) was administered by an operator trained to speak at 65 dB, without a face mask, with a surgical mask, and with a KN95/FFP2 face mask, in a quiet and in a noisy environment (cocktail party noise, 55 dB). The Hearing Handicap Index for Adults (HHI-A) was administered twice, asking subjects to complete it for the period before and after the pandemic outburst. A 2-way repeated-measure analysis of variance was performed.

The NH group showed a significant difference between the no-mask and the KN95/FFP2-mask condition in noise (p = 0.01). The HI group showed significant differences for surgical or KN95/FFP2 mask compared with no-mask, and for KN95/FFP2 compared with surgical mask, in quiet and in noise (p < 0.001). An increase in HHI-A scores was recorded for the HI patients (p < 0.001).

Face masks have a detrimental effect on speech perception especially for HI patients, potentially worsening their hearing-related quality of life.