Mendel Lisa Lucks, Gardino Julie A, Atcherson Samuel R
School of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Memphis, 807 Jefferson Avenue, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2008 Oct;19(9):686-95. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.19.9.4.
Successful communication is necessary in health-care environments. Yet the presence of noise in hospitals, operating rooms, and dental offices may have a deleterious effect on health-care personnel and patients understanding messages accurately. The presence of a surgical mask and hearing loss may further affect speech perception.
To evaluate whether a surgical mask had an effect on speech understanding for listeners with normal hearing and hearing impairment when speech stimuli were administered in the presence or absence of dental office noise.
Participants were assigned to one of two groups based on hearing sensitivity in this quasi-experimental, cross-sectional study.
A total of 31 adults participated in this study (1 talker, 15 listeners with normal hearing, and 15 with hearing impairment). The normal hearing group had thresholds of 25 dB HL or better at the octave frequencies from 250 through 8000 Hz while the hearing loss group had varying degrees and configurations of hearing loss with thresholds equal to or poorer than 25 dB HL for the same octave frequencies.
Selected lists from the Connected Speech Test (CST) were digitally recorded with and without a surgical mask present and then presented to the listeners in four conditions: without a mask in quiet, without a mask in noise, with a mask in quiet, and with a mask in noise.
A significant difference was found in the spectral analyses of the speech stimuli with and without the mask. The presence of a surgical mask, however, did not have a detrimental effect on speech understanding in either the normal-hearing or hearing-impaired groups. The dental office noise did have a significant effect on speech understanding for both groups.
These findings suggest that the presence of a surgical mask did not negatively affect speech understanding. However, the presence of noise did have a deleterious effect on speech perception and warrants further attention in health-care environments.
在医疗环境中，成功的沟通至关重要。然而，医院、手术室和牙科诊所中的噪音可能会对医护人员和患者准确理解信息产生有害影响。佩戴外科口罩和听力损失可能会进一步影响言语感知。
评估在有或没有牙科诊所噪音的情况下给予言语刺激时，外科口罩对听力正常和听力受损的听众的言语理解是否有影响。
在这项准实验性横断面研究中，根据听力敏感度将参与者分为两组之一。
共有31名成年人参与了这项研究（1名说话者、15名听力正常的听众和15名听力受损者）。听力正常组在250至8000赫兹的倍频程频率下阈值为25分贝听力级或更好，而听力损失组有不同程度和类型的听力损失，在相同倍频程频率下阈值等于或差于25分贝听力级。
从连贯言语测试（CST）中选择的列表在有和没有外科口罩的情况下进行数字录制，然后在四种条件下呈现给听众：安静无口罩、噪音无口罩、安静有口罩、噪音有口罩。
在有和没有口罩的言语刺激的频谱分析中发现了显著差异。然而，佩戴外科口罩对听力正常组或听力受损组的言语理解均没有不利影响。牙科诊所的噪音确实对两组的言语理解有显著影响。
这些发现表明，佩戴外科口罩不会对言语理解产生负面影响。然而，噪音的存在确实会对言语感知产生有害影响，在医疗环境中值得进一步关注。
