Effect of Stimulation Rate on Speech Understanding in Older Cochlear-Implant Users.
Maureen J Shader, Nicole Nguyen, Miranda Cleary and 5 others
PMID 31702596WHAT IT FOUND
Group-level rate changes made little difference to average speech understanding, and age did not predict benefit.
Eleven of 40 ears showed a 10 or more percentage point difference between rates, with lower rates favored in eight of 10 non-default optimal cases.
Key findings
01Average rate effects were negligible, and age did not significantly predict speech understanding.
02Eleven of 40 ears showed a 10 percentage point or greater difference between rates.
03Eight of the 10 ears with a non-default optimal rate had a lower-than-default optimal rate.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had no control group, so it cannot show how much of each person's score would have changed over time without the rate change. Each rate was tested after only a five-minute listening period, so it did not measure how patients would perform after living with a new rate. The scorers knew which stimulation rate was being tested, so their expectations could have influenced the responses. The Advanced Bionics/Med-El analysis included only five subjects, so its results are unstable. The group-level rate effects were judged negligible in a clinical sense, even when statistically significant. The individual optimal-rate comparison tested several rates for each person, which increases the chance of finding a large difference by chance.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration. The publication types list NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that older CI users generally need lower-than-default stimulation rates. Age did not significantly predict group speech understanding, and the average rate effect was judged negligible; only some individual ears showed large differences.