Are Central Auditory Processing Skills in Middle Aged Adults Different from Young Ones?

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of speech perception by the Persian version of the University of Cincinnati Auditory Processing Inventory questionnaire (P-UCAPI), Persian words recognition score (P-WRS), Persian words in noise (P-WIN) and Persian competing words (P-CW) tests between middle-aged and young adults. We considered 100 adults admitted to the Audiology Department of the Rohani Hospital in the north of Iran. Descriptive analysis was performed to determine mean scores and standard deviations. Paired sample t-test, independent sample t-test, and One-way ANOVA were applied to compare our research variables. Significance level was considered at p < .05. The results of current study demonstrated that there was not a significant difference in total score of P-UCAPI in two age groups. The middle-ages group had lower scores in the P-WIN test compared to the young adults and the mean scores were significantly lower in the left ear. The findings of the current study reveal that middle-aged adults have more problems in speech perception than young adults in noisy listening situation.