Age difference of speech intelligibility while wearing hearing protective devices in noisy environment

Abstract

Hearing conservation of elderly workers is important to keep their quality of life and to prevent occupational accidents. We performed this study to measure the age difference of hearing acuity in noisy environment. Subjects were total of 16 elderly (45 years old or more) and 21 healthy young people (35 years old or less). The two-syllable speech intelligibility with/without earplugs, with/without exposure to pink noises at 80 dB(A), 85 dB(A), and 90 dB(A) were measured in an anechoic room. For both age groups, the differences between the speech level required for 90% intelligibility and the noise level were nearly constant when the subjects wore ear plugs in noisy environment. Wearing ear plugs will be beneficial not only to protect hearing acuity but also to converse easily while wearing earplugs. However, special attention must be paid to talk loudly while wearing earplugs considering the Lombard effect.