The negative impact of wearing personal protective equipment on communication during coronavirus disease 2019

Abstract

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 personal protective equipment has been reported to affect communication in healthcare settings. This study sought to identify those challenges experimentally. Method Bamford–Kowal–Bench speech discrimination in noise performance of healthcare workers was tested under simulated background noise conditions from a variety of hospital environments. Candidates were assessed for ability to interpret speech with and without personal protective equipment, with both normal speech and raised voice. Results There was a significant difference in speech discrimination scores between normal and personal protective equipment wearing subjects in operating theatre simulated background noise levels (70 dB). Conclusion Wearing personal protective equipment can impact communication in healthcare environments. Efforts should be made to remind staff about this burden and to seek alternative communication paradigms, particularly in operating theatre environments.

Short report on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 face protective equipment on verbal communication

“…The negative impact of wearing personal protective equipment on communication during the pandemic is the topic of many anecdotal reports and of the paper of Hampton et al [ 8 ]. Speech perception scores were found to be significantly impaired when a human speaker was wearing F-PPE and the background noise was set to loud levels, simulating an operating theatre scenario.…”

“…Despite better depicting a real-world condition, the subjective measures based on sentences perception expose to a wider range of results, e.g. due to the listeners’ high interindividual variability of speech-in-noise performance, to the speaker’s Lombard effect (the involuntary tendency to raise voice levels to enhance speech intelligibility in noise), and to the wide signal-to-noise ratio fluctuations [ 8 ].…”

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

“…However, significantly poorer speech recognition is observed when listening to a talker who is wearing an N95 mask plus a face shield, as compared to unmasked, when the conversation occurs in a noisy environment. 9 Acoustic degradation of speech created by different face coverings may have a larger negative effect on speech recognition for listeners with hearing loss compared to normal-hearing listeners. The majority of listeners with hearing loss experience poorer hearing detection thresholds in the high-frequency region, 10 resulting in difficulty understanding consonant information due to reduced audibility and spectral resolution.…”

Coronavirus disease 2019: olfactory and gustatory function, negative impact of personal protective equipment on communication, and an antigen testing complication

“…4 In a study by Hampton et al, healthcare workers were assessed for their ability to interpret speech with and without personal protective equipment (PPE). 5 A significant difference in speech discrimination scores was found between normal and PPE wearing subjects in operating theatre simulated background noise levels (70 dB). The authors concluded that wearing PPE can impact communication in healthcare environments.…”