RELIABILITY OF 2 MEASURES OF SPEECH RECOGNITION IN ELDERLY PEOPLE

The revised Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test and the Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI) test have been used to help evaluate speech-recognition capabilities in elderly people. We evaluated the test-retest reliability of these measures for 17 subjects aged 63-82 years. The DSI and revised SPIN tests were administered at 65, 75, and 85 dB SPL, with a total of three presentations at each level. Reliability was assessed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance and 95% critical differences for each test. Results raise serious questions about the use of these tests for diagnostic determinations or assessment of speech-recognition ability in elderly people.