Prediction of speech comprehension of CI candidates in seniors based on cognitive screenings

Introduction In order to be able to predict more accurately the chances of success in speech comprehension in older hearing-impaired people fitted with a CI, it will be investigated here whether the preoperative cognitive performance enables statements about hearing success with cochlear implants.

Method The collective comprises 42 postlingually deafened CI patients over 65 years of age, who preoperatively participated in a cognitive screening, the Mini Mental Status Test (MMST) including the watch test. The speech test results were collected postoperatively after the initial fitting with the Freiburg monosyllable test, the HSM sentence test in quiet and in background noise SNR +10dB. It was examined whether there is a correlation between the overall result in the MMST, the seven task areas for testing various cognitive functions and the speech test results.

Results The group of patients with cognitively abnormal screening results has on average lower speech test results than the group of patients with inconspicuous findings. There are significant correlations between the overall MMST result and monosyllabic comprehension (r = 0.32; p = 0.04) and sentence comprehension in quiet (r = 0.33; p = 0.03). No significant correlations exist between the MMST and the sentence test in noise and between the different task areas and speech test results.

Conclusions The group of patients with preoperative conspicuous findings in cognitive screening also benefits from the CI. Initially, speech comprehension in noise is difficult for both groups. Preoperative cognitive screening is suitable for predicting hearing at the beginning of CI fitting and makes it possible to formulate realistic expectations in the preoperative patient counselling.

Poster-PDF A-1414.pdf

Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021