Masked Speech Recognition by 6-13-year-olds with Early-Childhood Otitis Media: Effects of Acoustic Condition and Otologic History

ObjectiveTo investigate speech recognition in school-age children with early-childhood otitis media (OM) in conditions with noise or speech maskers with or without interaural differences. To also investigate the effects of three otologic history factors.DesignUsing headphone presentation, speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) were measured with simple sentences. As maskers, stationary speech-shaped noise (SSN) or two-talker running speech (TTS) were used. The stimuli were presented in a monaural and binaural condition (SSN) or a co-located and spatially separated condition (TTS). Based on the available medical records, overall OM duration, OM onset age, and time since the last OM episode were estimated.Study sample6-13-year-olds with a history of recurrent OM (N = 42) or without any ear diseases (N = 20) with normal tympanograms and audiograms at the time of testing.ResultsMixed-model regression analyses that controlled for age showed poorer SRTs for the OM group (Delta-value = 0.84 dB, p = 0.009). These appeared driven by the spatially separated, binaural, and monaural conditions. The OM group showed large inter-individual differences, which were unrelated to the otologic history factors.ConclusionsEarly-childhood OM can affect speech recognition in different acoustic conditions. The effects of the otologic history warrant further investigation.