[Relation between pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry in various hearing-impaired listeners]

Pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry were performed in 30 normal-hearing listeners and 75 listeners suffering from conductive, sensorineural hearing loss or presbyacusia. The results were as follows: (1) For listeners with conductive or mild sensorineural hearing loss, or with mild presbyacusia, the difference between speech reception thresholds (SRT) and pure tone averages (PTA) was not significant (P > 0.05). (2) For listeners with profound sensorineural hearing loss or presbyacusia, the SRT were about 10 dB greater than the PTA. (3) The maximum discrimination score (PBXax) measurements should be made at a comfortable intensity for each listener, some 30 dB above the SRT in general. We conclude that the PTA can replace the SRT directly for the listeners described in (1) or that the PTA, by adding 10 dB, can also be used as a replacement of the SRT for the listeners described in (2).