[Speech intelligibility in elderly hearing impaired people].

The results of studying the features of auditory perception of speech stimuli in aged patients with hearing loss are presented in the article. 145 patients with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss from 52 to 90 years old underwent the tonal threshold audiometry and the tests battery to evaluate central auditory pathways functioning: the gap detection test, frequency difference limens, masking level difference, dichotic digits test. After analyzing speech discrimination scores of monosyllable words in quiet and in noise significantly worse results of all listeners in comparison with listeners with normal hearing are revealed; the deterioration of speech discrimination scores depending on age is noted. The impairment of speech discrimination is maximal when the speech stimuli are presented in background noise. Direct correlation between the deterioration of speech discrimination and the degree of hearing loss, it's duration, the presence of central auditory pathways dysfunction was ascertained.