Reliability of two measures of speech recognition in elderly people.

The revised Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test and the Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI) test have been used to help evaluate speech-recognition capabilities in elderly people. We evaluated the test-retest reliability of these measures for 17 subjects aged 63-82 years. The DSI and revised SPIN tests were administered at 65, 75, and 85 dB SPL, with a total of three presentations at each level. Reliability was assessed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance and 95% critical differences for each test. Results raise serious questions about the use of these tests for diagnostic determinations or assessment of speech-recognition ability in elderly people.