Development and Validation of a Mandarin Chinese Adaptation of AzBio Sentence Test (CMnBio).
Xin Xi, Ye Wang, Ya Shi and 5 others
PMID 36303434WHAT IT FOUND
This new Mandarin sentence test is harder than existing ones, so high-performing cochlear implant users no longer score perfectly.
This allows clinicians to detect real changes in speech understanding over time or after treatment, rather than seeing everyone hit the maximum score.
Key findings
01The new test avoided maximum scores in most participants, with only 2 out of 30 cochlear implant users scoring above 85% correct.
02Normal-hearing listeners scored significantly lower on this new test (78.0% correct) compared to older Mandarin tests under similar simulated conditions, confirming it is more difficult.
03The test lists are statistically equivalent, meaning a score difference between two lists is likely real change rather than one list being easier than the other.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The validation in cochlear implant users was limited to 30 adults who already had at least 40% word recognition, so it does not show how the test performs in children, non-users, or those with very poor speech understanding. The test was validated only in quiet, not in noise, which limits its use for assessing everyday communication in difficult listening environments.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by Chinese government research grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this test is easier or harder than the English AzBio for your specific patients without checking the provided critical difference tables. While the lists are equivalent to each other, the absolute difficulty differs across languages, so scores cannot be directly compared to English norms.