Speech Perception of Elderly Cochlear Implant Users Under Different Noise Conditions

Objective: The primary objective of this study was the comparison of younger and older (>75 yr) CI recipients' performance for speech perception in quiet and in competing continuous and fluctuating noise. Study Design: Prospective, comparative clinical study. Setting: University hospital. Patients: Fifty patients, 25 older and 25 younger than 75 years, with a postlingually acquired profound hearing loss who received a cochlear implant at least 1 year before study start were enrolled. Interventions: Cochlear implantation. Main Outcome Measures: We measured speech perception using monosyllable (Freiburg monosyllables) and sentence materials (Gottingen sentences) in quiet. In addition, speech perception for sentences was measured under two different noise conditions: with a continuous, speech-simulating noise signal (CCITT noise) and the FASTL noise (fluctuating noise). Results: We did not find a significant difference between the performance for younger and the older cohort on speech perception tasks in quiet for Freiburg monosyllables (63.4%20% and 61.7%+/- 18.1%, respectively) and for the Gottingen sentences in quiet (73.5%+/- 24.3% and 75%+/- 25%, respectively). No significant difference was observed for performance between the two age groups when listening in continuous CCITT noise (18.9%+/- 24.0% and 29.5%+/- 25.2% perception score respectively) or in FASTL noise (27.8%+/- 24.2% and 34.4%+/- 27.8% perception score, respectively). Conclusion: There is no supporting evidence from our evaluations of word and sentence perception in quiet and noise that elderly CI users older than 75 years of age perform more poorly than those younger than 75 years of age.