The Reliability and Equivalency of the Persian Version of Quick Speech-in-Noise Test in 7-12-Year-Old

Abstract

Background and Aim: In a noisy environment, children struggle more than adults to understand speech. Various tests at different levels of cognition are available to evaluate children’s speech perception abilities in a noisy environment. The present study aimed at determining the reliability and equivalency of the Persian version of the quick speech-in-noise (P-Q-SIN) test in 7-12 years old school-aged children. Methods: A total of 120 (60 girls) students with normal hearing were chosen from primary schools in district 2 of Kerman City, Iran. They were in five age groups ranging from 7 to 12 years (24 children per age group). Pure tone audiometry test was performed on the samples, then nine lists of P-Q-SIN of previous studies (Khalili et al. and Shayanmehr et al.) were administered on these participants. To obtain the test-retest reliability, three weeks later, the re-test was performed. Results: In the test-retest reliability, lists 1 and 4 of Khalili et al. and list 2 of Shayanmehr et al. were highly correlated (p<0.05). There were no significant differences between the scores of girls and boys (p>0.05). The participant’s performance improves as the age increases. Conclusion: None of the lists of Shayanmehr et al. was reliable and equivalent. List 1 and 4 of Khalili et al. were reliable and equivalent; therefore, they can be used in clinical application for children in the age range of 7 to 12 years by considering the norm of signal-to-noise ratio loss. Keywords: Children; equivalency; normal hearing; quick speech-in-noise test; reliability; signal to noise ratio loss