Speech discrimination of patients with high frequency hearing loss.

Mean speech discrimination curves were measured in three groups of patients having severe, moderate and mild high-tone hearing losses in pure-tone audiograms, 20 patients being tested in each group. The audiograms sloped linearly by 22 dB/oct. Recruiting ears in Reger's test were excluded. The group with moderate hearing loss achieved significantly poorer discrimination scores at high sound pressure levels than the group with severe hearing loss, a phenomenon not reported before. However, the results agree with preceding work in which equivalent sensorineural hearing losses were simulated with filter equipment. The causes of the phenomenon and its significance for hearing aid selection are discussed.