Understanding the Speech-Understanding Problems of Older Adults

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to review recent research from our laboratory on the speech-understanding problems of older adults. METHOD: The method involved a narrative review of previously reported data from our laboratory. CONCLUSION: To date, the results from most of our studies have indicated that peripheral and cognitive factors are the primary contributors to the speech-understanding problems of older adults, with the relative mix of these 2 factors changing for unaided (primarily peripheral) and aided (primarily cognitive) listening conditions.