Paediatric speech intelligibility (PSI) in normal hearing children with history of recurrent otitis media with effusion (OME)

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is one of the most common disorders in childhood. Several investigators have reported central auditory processing disorders in children with recurrent attacks of OME. The aim was to study PSI in children with normal hearing and those with a history of recurrent OME. The study group consisted of 40 children, age range 5–8 years, with a previous history of three to five attacks of otitis media with effusion (OME). The average length of OME was 8.3 weeks/attack. The study group was divided into two equal subgroups, A and B; subgroup A had recently recovered from OME while subgroup B had recovered from OME at an earlier time. The control group consisted of 20 children with normal hearing. The control and study groups had matched age and gender distribution. A t-test was carried out to compare the different listening conditions of the PSI test in the control and the two study subgroups (CCM 0, CCM −20, ICM 0 and ICM +4). Non-statistically significant differences were found in all listening conditions when comparing the control group and subgroup B. Comparing the results of PSI testing of subgroup A to either control group or subgroup B, there were statistically high differences in all of the different testing conditions (p<0.01). Recurrent attacks of OME during the early years of life affect figure-ground ability as indicated by the significantly reduced PSI scores. However, this affection is reversed within a few months of recovery from OME.