Development, validity and reliability of Persian quick speech in noise test with steady noise

Background and Aim: Quick Speech in Noise (Q-SIN) test has popularity for evaluating speech recognition in noise. The present study has been paid to build five new Persian lists with respect to all possible factors affecting the test, to determine validity of the test and to run five lists for normal hearing subjects and assessment of reliability. Methods: To build lists, frequent, familiar and difficult in terms of cognitive (cohort size of above three) words were used to construct unpredictable sentences. After determining the content and face validity, the 30 selected sentences were recorded in the studio by a familiar female speaker. The recorded sentences and prepared four talker babbling noise were combined in Cool Edit software. Then five test lists were conducted in 35, 18-35 year old individuals with normal hearing. The reliability was assessed with the retest after two weeks. Results: The 30 sentences became valid (content and face validity) with the change according to expert judges. The average Signal to noise ratio (SNR) loss of five lists was 0.35 dB. There was no significant difference between men and women in all lists except list 4 (p=0.03). The results indicate no difference in the average SNR loss between five Lists .In reliability assessment test-retest correlation coefficient was 8.0 (p < 0.05). Intra-class coefficient (ICC) for lists was statistically significant (p=0.00) and confirmed the lists have reliability and high repeatability. Conclusions: The Developed lists are valid, equivalent and reliable and can be utilized in clinical application.