Speech recognition in noise in patients with type II diabetes

Abstract

Context: The chronic diabetes is associated with damage to the sensory and cognitive regions brain. The central auditory system is susceptible to the damage caused by high glucose level. Aims: Since the healthy auditory system plays an important role in communication, this study examined speech recognition in noise performance of these people so as to better identify the harmful impacts of diabetes on the auditory processing. Settings and Design: This cross-sectional comparative study compares the speech recognition in noise performance of 30 diabetic patients and 30 normal individuals aged 30-55 years with quick speech in noise (Q-SIN) test. Subjects and Methods: All people had normal hearing and the speech recognition performance in silent, the Persian version of the Q-SIN test was used. Statistical Analysis Used: Results of signal-to-noise ratio loss (SNR loss) and recognition of words at different SNR levels were analyzed with Chi-square test and independent t-test in two groups. Results: There was a significant difference between diabetic patients and normal individuals in mean of SNR loss (P < 0.05). The comparison of word recognition scores in each SNR showed no significant difference in 25, 20 SNRs between the two groups (P > 0.05), but the performance of diabetic patients was weaker in 15, 10, 5, 0 SNR (P < 0.05). Conclusions: In the absence of hearing loss, the diabetic patients have a significant speech perception disorder, especially at lower levels of SNRs, compared to normal people of the same age. Impaired speech comprehension in the presence of a competitive message can result from the damage to central auditory processing as a result of diabetes.