Analysis of Auditory Function of Patients with Parkinson Disease Based on Mandarin

Objective: This study aimed to assess hearing loss and speech recognition impairment in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) based on Mandarin through pure-tone audiometry and speech audiometry. Methods: In total, 32 PD patients and 32 age-matched normal controls were enrolled for pure-tone audiometry and speech audiometry using a GSI arrow audiometer together with the BOSCH Chinese speech audiometry system. Results: The results of pure-tone audiometry showed that PD patients exhibited more severe low-, medium-, or high-frequency hearing loss than normal controls, especially at higher frequencies, and there were significant differences in gender. In addition, the results of speech audiometry showed that the speech recognition threshold of PD patients was significantly higher than that of normal controls. Furthermore, at any of the 3 hearing levels of 70, 50, and 30 dB HL, the recognition rates of initials, finals, and tones were successively decreased in PD patients, especially initials. Conclusion: PD patients exhibited significant hearing loss and speech recognition impairment. The initial recognition was more dependent on the hearing levels.