Assessment of speech recognition and quality of effusion in Arabic children.

Abstract

Otitis Media with effusion (OME) is the most common cause of conductive hearing loss (CHL) in children and is associated with poor health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). The Paediatric Arabic Auditory Speech Test in Quit (PAAST SiQ) and Arabic OM6 (AOM6) were investigated to assess the use of speech recognition and quality of life (QoL), respectively, as outcome measures in Arabic-speaking children with OME. The main aims were (1) Equalising intelligibility of the PAAST SiQ speech material, (2) Ensuring PAAST SiQ sensitivity to OME-related simulated CHL (SCHL), (3) Developing an Arabic questionnaire to assess QoL in children with OME and (4) Assessing the use of PAAST and AOM6 in Speech recognition and QoL, respectively, in Arabic- speaking children with OME. The PAAST SiQ was assessed for its homogeneity in Arabic-speaking normal hearing (NH) adults (n=17) using an interleaved adaptive procedure (ILAP). The range of SRTs of the words in the post- equalisation stage (n= 30) was 1.95 dB (±0.98 dB), indicating that the words of the PAAST SiQ were equal in intelligibility. The PAAST SiQ was also assessed for its sensitivity to OME-related simulated conductive hearing loss (SCHL) in Arabic-speaking NH adults (n= 30). The main results were (1) All word SRTs increased significantly with the change in conditions from normal to SCHL (independent t-test against a value of 0 p < 0.001) and (2) some words were found to be more sensitive to SCHL. The AOM6 was developed by translating the OM6 questionnaire to assess QoL in Arabic children with OME. The AOM6 was culturally acceptable, easy to understand, had good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha (AOM6 Total) = 0.72), no floor and ceiling effect, and partially good construct validity. The PAAST SiQ and AOM6 were assessed in Arabic-speaking children (aged 3.5-6 years) diagnosed with OME (n = 50) to investigate the effect of OME on speech recognition and QoL, investigate the relationship between speech recognition and QoL, and assess the test-retest reliability of the PAAST SiQ and AOM6. The main results showed that (1) The OME status of the ear led to approximately 5 dB significant increase (p = 0.006) in SRTs compared to the No OME status in unilateral OME, (2) The SRTs significantly correlated with Pure-tone audiometry hearing thresholds (PTA-HL) (p < 0.001), and it was predicted that a 30 dBA SRT would equate to PTA-HL of approximately 14 dBHL, (3) There was a moderate correlation between SRTs and AOM6 total scores (r = 0.43, p = 0.002), and (4) The PAAST SiQ and AOM6 had good test re-test reliability. The current thesis research found the PAAST SiQ to be a reliable test with good discriminative validity, and the AOM6 a reliable measure with suitable psychometric properties, suggesting that both tests are acceptable outcome measure tools for the assessment of speech recognition and QoL, respectively, in Arabic children with OME. Future recommended work includes further validation, application in larger studies, and assessment of the effect of intervention on test scores.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Ben Lineton: orcid.org/0000-0003-4784-7762

ORCID for Nicci Campbell: orcid.org/0000-0001-6895-5434

Catalogue record

Export record