Incapacidade auditiva medida por meio do questionário Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ): estudo piloto da versão reduzida em Português Brasileiro

Abstract

Introduction:The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) is a questionnaire that assesses subjective experience and quantifies hearing disabilities in communication situations. Purpose: To carry out a pilot study of a short version of the SSQ questionnaire in Brazilian Portuguese to measure hearing disability resulting from hearing loss. Methods: We selected 30 individuals, 12 males and 18 females, aged 18 to 89 years, with average education of nine years. The subjects underwent pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry tests and immittance measurements. Participants were divided into two groups according to hearing threshold, comprising 15 with normal hearing (NL) and 15 with hearing loss (HL). All participants answered the SSQ questionnaire -short version (12 items) -in the form of an interview, rating their communication performance in all situations assessed with a score of 0 to 10. Results: The mean scores obtained were 6.68 and 4.13 for the NL and HL groups, respectively. Individuals with hearing loss had lower scores than subjects with normal hearing. A high Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found in both groups, demonstrating good internal consistency between the different items of the questionnaire. Conclusion: The short version of the SSQ in Brazilian Portuguese was sensitive in differentiating the performance of individuals with and without hearing loss, confirming its potential for assessing limitations in hearing and communication activities experienced by hearing-impaired individuals in their everyday lives.

Simultaneous Cochlear Implantation After Translabyrinthine Vestibular Schwannoma Resection: A Report of 41 Cases

“…The SSQ is a self-reported measure of hearing disability that comprises 49 items covering three main parameters namely speech hearing, spatial hearing, and qualities of hearing. Our results were in the midscale and are comparable to those of single-sided deafness patients that were managed by cochlear implantation (44), and higher than values recorded from patients with nonrehabilitated hearing loss (48). Our results therefore indicate that CI showed improvement in speech understanding, sound localization, and sound quality.…”

Assistive listening technology in cochlear implant users in reverberant environments with multiple noise sources

“…In the silent situation of the room with 419 ms of reverberation for sounds presented in the box at 0o azimuth with words emitted by a male voice, the average performance was 35% without MM. This fact confirms the report by the literature (23) that classical audiological assessment generally includes measures of speech intelligibility, using material with recording of only one speaker and fixed noise in controlled environments, in the laboratory or clinic, but does not consider the complexity of human communication in real and dynamic contexts. In fact, one research (9) studied the effect of the coexistence of noise and simulated reverberation on the intelligibility of 11 adult implants and observed that the intelligibility dropped from 87.36% (silent situation) to 44.16% and 32.94% in the two reverberation situations: T60 = 0.6 s and T60 = 0.8 s respectively.…”

Tecnologia auditiva assistiva em usuários de implante coclear em ambientes reverberantes com múltiplas fontes de ruído

“…Na situação silenciosa da sala com 419 ms de reverberação para sons apresentados na caixa a 0 o azimute com palavras emitidas por voz masculina, o desempenho médio foi de 35% sem MM. Esse fato confirma o relato da literatura (23) de que a avaliação audiológica clássica geralmente inclui medidas de inteligibilidade de fala, utilizando material com gravação de apenas um locutor e ruído fixo em ambientes controlados, no laboratório ou na clínica, mas não considera a complexidade do comunicação humana em contextos reais e dinâmicos. De fato, uma pesquisa (9) estudou o efeito da coexistência de ruído e reverberação simulada na inteligibilidade de 11 implantes adultos e observaram que a inteligibilidade caiu de 87,36% (situação silenciosa) para 44,16% e 32,94% nas duas situações de reverberação: T60 = 0,6 se T60 = 0,8 s respectivamente.…”