THE EFFECTS OF FACE MASK USE DURING COVID-19 ON SPEECH COMPREHENSION IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS WITH HEARING LOSS WHO USE LIP-READING FOR COMMUNICATION: A PROSPECTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objective: Communication difficulties are considered the most significant consequence of hearing loss. This study aimed to determine whether surgical face masks, which have been mandatory throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, have an effect on speech comprehension scores in geriatric lip-reading patients with hearing loss and to raise awareness of the need for solutions to this problem. Materials and Method: Patients with moderate and higher sensorineural or mixed bilateral symmetrical hearing loss who stated that they lip-read to better understand during communication were included in the study. The patients’ speech comprehension scores were gathered while the audiologist wore a surgical mask and then a transparent mask, respectively. Results: Twelve (33,3%) of the patients were female, and 24 (66.7%) were male. The mean age of the patients was 66.64±1.53 years. The mean speech comprehension scores of the patients when the audiologist was wearing a surgical mask (38.25±14.33) and a transparent mask (67.81 ± 14.30), respectively, were compared. The surgical mask significantly affected speech comprehension scores, and the Cohen d value of the effect size was 2.06. As such, the surgical face mask had a great effect on these patients’ speech comprehension scores. Conclusions: In elderly lip-reading patients who suffer from hearing loss, seeing the lip movements of the speaker, especially in hospital applications, promotes more effective communication. Transparent face masks can be considered a solution. © 2022, Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved