Speech Intelligibility and Cognition: Are Inpatients Impaired by Noise?

NCT00695162 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: #11-3307
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 84
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Study Objectives:

• 1\. To examine the extent to which noise typical of nursing units reduces speech intelligibility in acutely ill hospitalized patients
• 2\. To examine the extent to which noise typical of nursing units impairs recall in acutely ill hospitalized patients
• 3\. To quantify severity of reduced performance associated with age, familiarity with the healthcare setting, hearing and health status. Plan: One hundred and twenty inpatients from the four medical/surgical nursing units at the Portland VA Medical Center, 60 with normal hearing and 60 with hearing impairment will be recruited to participate in the study. Following assessment to ascertain eligibility and obtaining informed consent, patients will be tested in a sound booth housed at the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR). Designed so that each patient serves as his or her own control, we can accommodate considerable baseline variability between patients without adversely affecting required sample size. Patients' performance in speech intelligibility and recall tests will be measured using a constant level of speech, in controlled environments of no noise (baseline), white noise, hospital noise and hospital noise with speech, all delivered via headphones in pseudo-random order. Performance will be measured in each type of noise at decibel levels equivalent to those currently experienced on nursing units and at lower levels that prior studies have shown are more conducive to effective communication By selecting measures that are particularly relevant to the safe care of hospitalized patients, and that have been studied extensively in healthy populations in highly controlled conditions, we expect to find compelling and unambiguous evidence that hospitalized patients correctly hear and recall very little of what is said to them during their hospitalizations. The majority of hospitalized patients stay on acute care nursing units during most or all of their hospitalizations, making this an appropriate population to study in the context of their responses to the noises typical in these environments. Perhaps most importantly, this study will heighten awareness of health-care personnel to the levels of impairment suffered by their patients - both in their ability to correctly interpret speech and to recall it - in the typical noisy environments of nursing units.

Conditions

Auditory Perception; Memory; Hearing Impairment

Keywords

noise; speech intelligibility; cognition

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in the percent of correctly identified words at different signal-to-noise rations (levels +4, +8 and +12 db) above that of the two types of noise, relative to the percent identified in quiet

  immediately after presentation

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Change in the percent of correctly recalled words at different signal-to-noise rations (levels +4, +8 and +12 db) above that of the two types of noise, relative to the percent recalled in quiet

  five minutes after presentation

Study Arms (2)

1

OTHER

hearing impaired inpatients

Other: quiet; Other: non-speech noise; Other: speech noise

2

OTHER

Non-hearing-impaired inpatients

Other: quiet; Other: non-speech noise; Other: speech noise

Interventions

quiet OTHER

no noise

1; 2

non-speech noise OTHER

noise without speech

1; 2

speech noise OTHER

noise with speech present

1; 2

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 88 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Adult inpatients on medical/surgical nursing units at the Portland VA, greater than 18 years of age will be eligible to participate.

You may not qualify if:

• Cognitively or physically unable to participate (reported by patient or nurse); electronic chart notes indicate patient exhibits aggressive behavior, documented dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or severe psychosocial disorder, patient undergoing detoxification, individual is not legally capable of independently providing informed consent
• Patients who are not native American English speakers.
• Patients who exhibit Meniere's disease or retrocochlear disorder based on patient report or notes in patient's chart.
• Patient exhibits active or recent history of middle ear disorder based on otoscopy, tympanometry, immittance or notes in patient chart; 5) patients unwilling to participate.
• Cognitively or physically unable to participate (reported by patient or nurse); electronic chart notes indicate patient exhibits aggressive behavior, documented dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or severe psychosocial disorder, patient undergoing detoxification, individual is not legally capable of independently providing informed consent
• Patients who are not native American English speakers.
• Patients who exhibit Meniere's disease or retrocochlear disorder based on patient report or notes in patient's chart.
• Patient exhibits active or recent history of middle ear disorder based on otoscopy, tympanometry, immittance or notes in patient chart.
• Patients with hearing loss that exceeds 25 dBHL in any frequency between .l5 and 3 kHz.
• Patients unwilling to participate.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Portland VA Medical Center: lead

Study Sites (1)

Portland VA Medical Center

Portland, Oregon, 97239, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Hearing Loss; Speech Intelligibility

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Hearing Disorders; Ear Diseases; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Speech; Verbal Behavior; Communication; Behavior

Study Officials

• Diana S Pope, PhD, MS, RN

  Portland VA Medical Center

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: FED

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 9, 2008
• First Posted: June 11, 2008
• Study Start: January 1, 2010
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2010
• Study Completion: December 1, 2010
• Last Updated: February 16, 2011

Record last verified: 2011-02

Locations

US (1)