title: Unoccluded bone conduction screening as an alternative to impedance screening.
abstract: The present study was undertaken to determine which intensity level of an unoccluded bone-conducted (BC) signal might be best suited for use as a supplemental procedure to an individual pure-tone air-conduction school screening program. Four intensity levels (0, 5, 10, 15 dB hearing level) of a 500 Hz BC tone were presented in ascending order to a public school population in addition to screening by impedance audiometry and pure-tone air conducted signals. Tetrachoric analysis using impedance screening results as a standard comparison revealed that a 10-dB unoccluded BC signal at 500 Hz provided an effective supplemental procedure for identifying conductive pathology in the population studied.
mesh_terms: D001299:Audiometry / Q000379:methods*; D001844:Bone Conduction; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004427:Ear Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D004432:Ear, Middle; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D013714:Tennessee