Influence of Protective Face Coverings on the Speech Recognition of Cochlear Implant Patients

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives were to characterize the effects of wearing face coverings on: 1) acoustic speech cues, and 2) speech recognition of patients with hearing loss who listen with a cochlear implant. Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed in a tertiary referral center between July and September 2020. A female talker recorded sentences in three conditions: no face covering, N95 mask, and N95 mask plus a face shield. Spectral differences were analyzed between speech produced in each condition. The speech recognition in each condition for twenty-three adult patients with at least 6 months of cochlear implant use was assessed. Results: Spectral analysis demonstrated preferential attenuation of high-frequency speech information with the N95 mask plus face shield condition compared to the other conditions. Speech recognition did not differ significantly between the uncovered (median 90% [IQR 89%–94%]) and N95 mask conditions (91% [IQR 86%–94%]; P =.253); however, speech recognition was significantly worse in the N95 mask plus face shield condition (64% [IQR 48%–75%]) compared to the uncovered (P