Speech Audiometry Tests in Noise Are Impaired in Older Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a frequent condition in the older population; its early diagnosis might be particularly important for the prevention of dementia onset. In particular, the aim of this study is to evaluate whether speech recognition in noise might be impaired in older patients with MCI compared with normal older individuals. MATERIALS and METHODS: On the whole, 48 subjects were enrolled into the present study: 16 older patients with MCI, 16 older subjects without cognitive impairment (controls), and 16 normally hearing young individuals. All subjects underwent speech audiometry in noise in order to evaluate the effect of different types of masking: two kinds of energetic masking, stationary and fluctuating noise, and a kind of typical informative masking, consisting of continuous discourse. RESULTS: The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), expressed in dB, needed for speech reception threshold (SRT) in noise was worse in older patients affected by MCI, compared with older controls. The presence of masking likely affected the performance of both elderly controls and MCI patients; however, elderly controls had better performance with informative masking (CoDi) than MCI patients. CONCLUSION: Speech audiometry tests in noise are impaired in MCI older patients, and this could indicate a particular decline in functions as- sociated with selective attention in these individuals. If confirmed in a larger sample of patients, these simple tests might contribute to the early identification of MCI patients.