COVID-19 and Deafness: Impact of Face Masks on Speech Perception.
J Am Acad Audiol
; 33(2): 98-104, 2022 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1830266
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 pandemic has made wearing face masks a common habit in public places. Several reports have underlined the increased difficulties encountered by deaf people in speech comprehension, resulting in a higher risk of social isolation and psychological distress.PURPOSE:
To address the detrimental effect of different types of face masks on speech perception, according to the listener hearing level and background noise. RESEARCHDESIGN:
Quasi-experimental cross-sectional study. STUDY SAMPLE Thirty patients were assessed 16 with normal hearing [NH], and 14 hearing-impaired [HI] with moderate hearing loss. DATA COLLECTION ANDANALYSIS:
A speech perception test (TAUV) was administered by an operator trained to speak at 65 dB, without a face mask, with a surgical mask, and with a KN95/FFP2 face mask, in a quiet and in a noisy environment (cocktail party noise, 55 dB). The Hearing Handicap Index for Adults (HHI-A) was administered twice, asking subjects to complete it for the period before and after the pandemic outburst. A 2-way repeated-measure analysis of variance was performed.RESULTS:
The NH group showed a significant difference between the no-mask and the KN95/FFP2-mask condition in noise (p = 0.01). The HI group showed significant differences for surgical or KN95/FFP2 mask compared with no-mask, and for KN95/FFP2 compared with surgical mask, in quiet and in noise (p < 0.001). An increase in HHI-A scores was recorded for the HI patients (p < 0.001).CONCLUSION:
Face masks have a detrimental effect on speech perception especially for HI patients, potentially worsening their hearing-related quality of life.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Speech Perception
/
Deafness
/
COVID-19
/
Hearing Loss
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Am Acad Audiol
Journal subject:
Audiology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S-0041-1736577
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