The relation of hearing-specific patient-reported outcome measures with speech perception measures and acceptable noise levels in cochlear implant users

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the CI recipients.

	N	Mean	SD	Range
Gender
Female	17 (35%)
Male	31 (65%)
Duration of SPHL		5.7	0.48	0–21
Years of HA use before CI		23.8	4.63	0–50
Age at test (years)		64.3	14.25	29–89
Age at implantation (years)		59.4	14.65	27–88
CI use since implantation (years)		4.8	3.25	1–13
Free-field PTA with CI		30.3	7.82	13–49
Contralateral HA	12 (25%)
Implant type
Advanced Bionics HiRes90K MS	01 (2%)
Advanced Bionics HiRes90K 1J	22 (46%)
Advanced Bionics HiRes90K Helix	04 (08%)
Cochlear CI24RE CA	21 (44%)
Speech processor type
Advanced Bionics Naida Q70	27 (56%)
Cochlear Nucleus 5	21 (44%)

Mean values, SD and range were given. CI: cochlear implant; HA: hearing Aid; SPHL: severe-profound hearing loss; PTA: pure tone average over 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz.

Figure 1. Speech reception thresholds in noise (SRTn) and Acceptable noise levels (ANL) for CI users and NH listeners. Lower SRTn and ANL values indicate better performance. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. Numbers of mean and SD are given below the bars.

Figure 2. Proportion of correct words from sentences in quiet (PCq) plotted against the Speech Reception Thresholds in noise (SRTn), obtained with word scoring (left panel), together with a regression line. The y-axis on the left shows the proportion correct in rau units and the y-axis on the right of the left panel gives the proportion correct scores. The black square shows the normal-hearing reference value. The right panel shows the intelligibility function of four groups of CI users and the NH reference. The grey area is the area with ecological SNRs.

Table 2. Correlation matrix with Pearson correlation coefficients and corrected significance levels for proportion of correct CVC words (PCcvc), proportion of correct words from sentences in quiet (PCq), speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) and acceptable noise level (ANL) as measured in the CI group.

	PCcvc	PCq	SRTn
PCq	0.56*
SRTn	−0.56*	−0.85*
ANL	−0.23	−0.50*	0.51*

*The correlation is significant (<0.001) after correction for multiple testing.

Figure 3. Acceptable noise levels (ANL) compared with Speech reception thresholds in noise (SRTn), together with a regression line.

Figure 4. Mean values on the speech and qualities scales and pragmatic subscales of the Speech, spatial and qualities (SSQ) questionnaire for the CI group and the NH group. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. Numbers of mean and SD are given below the bars.

Table 3. Correlation matrix with Spearman correlation coefficients for proportion of correct CVC words (PCcvc), proportion of correct words from sentences in quiet (PCq), speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn), and Acceptable noise level (ANL) as measured in the CI group.

	PC (cvc)	PCq	SRTn	ANL
SSQ speech	0.27	0.39*	−0.37*	−0.31
Speech in quiet	0.44*	0.47*	−0.45*	−0.31
Speech in speech contexts	0.24	0.32*	−0.27	−0.25
Speech in noise	0.20	0.34*	−0.34*	−0.37*
Multiple speech-stream and switching	0.17	0.39*	−0.40*	−0.30
SSQ qualities	0.39*	0.51*	−0.39*	−0.46*
Sound quality and naturalness	0.44*	0.52*	−0.43*	−0.40*
Identification of sound and objects	0.35*	0.46*	−0.36*	−0.51*
Segregation of sounds	0.35*	0.47*	−0.40*	−0.35*
Listening effort	0.09	0.23	−0.10	−0.32*

*The correlation is significant (< 0.05) after correction for multiple testing.

Figure 5. Relations of SSQ speech and SSQ quality with the speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) and the acceptable noise level (ANL), together with fitted regression lines.

Table 4. Prediction of SSQ Speech and Qualities by proportion of correct CVC words (PCcvc), proportion of correct words from sentences in quiet (PCq), speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) and acceptable noise level (ANL) as measured in the CI group.

Predicted	Predictor	B	β	F	t	p Value	R^2	Adj. R^2
SSQ speech
Model Sa				5,208		0.009	0.188	0.152
	PCcvc	2.512	0.270		1.952	0.057	0.114	0.095
	ANL	−0.090	0.280		−2.025	0.049	0.119	0.100
Model Sb				4.818		0.013	0.176	0.140
	PCq	2.975	0.276		1.768	0.084	0.144	0.126
	ANL	−0.067	−0.207		−1.327	0.191	0.119	0.100
Model Sc				3.634		0.034	0.139	0.101
	SRTn	−0.065	−0.164		−1.020	0.313	0.089	0.069
	ANL	−0.084	−0.261		−1.615	0.113	0.119	0.100
SSQ qualities
Model Qa				9.610		<0.001	0.304	0.272
	PCcvc	2.467	0.269		2.075	0.044	0.137	0.118
	ANL	−0.133	−0.421		−3.249	0.002	0.239	0.222
Model Qb				9.880		<0.001	0.310	0.297
	PCq	3.086	0.307		2.130	0.039	0.225	0.208
	ANL	−0.101	−0.336		−2.330	0.024	0.239	0.222
Model Qc				7.563		0.002	0.256	0.222
	SRTn	−0.056	−0.153		−1.005	0.320	0.133	0.114
	ANL	−0.123	−0.410		−2.697	0.010	0.239	0.222

B: non-standardised regression coefficient; β: standardised regression coefficient; F and t are the F and t statistic, p value: significance level, R²: coefficient of determination, adj. R²: adjusted R² values.