Speech communication profiles across the adult lifespan: persons without self-identified hearing impairment

Abstract

A sample of 209 adults ranging from 20 to 79 years of age were studied to measure speech communication profiles as a function of age in persons who did not identify themselves as hearing impaired. The study was conducted in order to evaluate age-related speech percepton abilities and ccammmication profiles in a population who do not present for hearing assessment and who are not included in census statistics as having hearing problems. Audiometric assessment, demographic and hearing history self-reports, speech reception thresholds, consonant discrimination perception in quiet and noise, and the Ccumnunication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (CPHI) were the in.ements used to develop speech communication profiles. Hearing performance decreased with increased age. However, despite self-reports of no hearing impairment, many subjects over age 50 had audiometric thresholds that indicated hearing impairment. The responses to the CPHI were correlated to audiometric thresholds, but also to the age of the respondent, when hearing thresholds had been controlled statistically. A comparison of CPHI responses f?om this study and that of two other samples in clinical populations revealed only slightly different patterns of behaviour in the present sample when co&o&d with communication difficulties.