[The quantitative effects of competition on verbal intelligibility in the elderly]

The Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) was adaptively measured using sentences in two groups of subjects: young, normal-hearing subjects and elderly hearing-impaired subjects with high frequency loss. SRT was recorded in quiet and in noisy conditions with competition consisting in "speech noise" and continuous discourse delivered at intensities between 11.4 and 98.6 dBA SPL. A significant difference was found between the groups in that elderly subjects had higher SRTs in noise than the young counterparts expressed as signal to noise (s/n) ratio. Moreover, at noise intensities typical of everyday life, the SRTs of the elderly is 6 and 11.4 dBs/n higher than normal-hearing subjects, with speech noise and discourse respectively as competition. Communicative strategies that enhance s/n ratio should be considered in order to overcome the heavy effects of hearing loss in the elderly.