Assessment of 20 disyllabic Albanian word lists for speech audiometry in normal hearing young adults and children

Objectives: Because there is no validated speech audiometry word list in Albanian, the aim of this study was to create and evaluate lists of words in normal hearing children and young adults. Methods In total, 20 lists of 10 spondaic disyllabic words were created, taking into account the idiosyncrasies of the Albanian language. Eighty-three young adults and 86 children were included. For each ear, the difference between the speech recognition threshold (SRT) and the pure tone average threshold (PTA) was calculated. The psychometric function slope was also calculated. Results The difference between the SRT and PTA was 3.2±2.1dB in adults and 3.3±2.4dB in children. A value ≤7dB was observed in 93% of adults and 92% of children. The psychometric function slope was 7.3%/dB in adults and 7.9%/dB in children. Conclusion Speech audiometry in the Albanian language can now be performed using the lists defined in the present study.