The effect of ear protectors on word discrimination in subject with normal hearing and subjects with noise-induced hearing loss.

Abstract

Two groups of subjects with normal hearing and three groups of subjects with noise-induced hearing loss were studied for the effect of ear protectors on word discrimination in two different speech-to-noise ratios. Various interactions in the analyses of variance were shown to be significant. The important demonstration in this study is that at high speech intensity, subjects with normal hearing should obtain higher word discrimination score with ear protectors than without if the signal-to-noise ratio is high. Albeit, the same is not true for a low signal-to-noise ratio, for a low speech intensity, or when subjects have hearing losses; the improvements in these conditions are not high enough to warrant the disuse of ear protectors. Results are discussed and compared with other studies.