Reliability of Speech Recognition Threshold Test Using the Korean Standard Bisyllabic Word List for Adults in Comparison with Conventional Hahm's List

Abstract

Received March 6, 2012 Revised May 2, 2012 Accepted May 10, 2012 Address for correspondence Jung-Hak Lee, AuD, PhD Department of Audiology, Hallym University of Graduate Studies, 405 Yeoksam-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135-841, Korea Tel +82-2-2051-4950 Fax +82-2-3453-6618 E-mail leejh@hallym.ac.kr Background and ObjectivesZZThe purpose of this study was to compare a newly developed Korean standard bisyllabic word list for adults (KS-BWL-A) against the conventional Hahm’s List based on the reliability in speech recognition threshold (SRT) test. Subjects and MethodZZTwelve adults with normal hearing and 11 hearing-impaired patients participated in this study. After excluding 10 words that are common in both lists, 26 bisyllabic words from each list were used for comparison in this study. SRTs were obtained using the modified ascending method. ResultsZZThe mean SRTs measured by KS-BWL-A were 1.9 dB lower for the normal hearing group and 2.7 dB lower for the hearing-impaired group than those measured by the conventional Hahm’s list with statistical significance (p=0.025 and p=0.045). In both groups, the pure tone averages (PTAs) were highly correlated (correlation coefficient >0.7, p<0.001) with SRTs measured using old and new lists, and the differences between PTA and SRT were within 3 dB for both lists. ConclusionZZThese results suggest that both KS-BWL-A and the conventional list are reliable methods as adult SRT tests and that two lists are not considerably different. However, speech recognition was slightly easier by the new list than it was by the conventional list. Authors propose the KS-BWL-A as a standard word list for SRT measurement in Korea. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2012;55:350-4