Evaluation of the audioscope in an industrial setting.
In this study, the findings of a 25 dB hearing level Welch Allyn Audioscope test at 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz were compared with the standard of conventional pure-tone audiometry in 228 newly hired construction workers. The sensitivity for all frequency-specific comparisons combined was found to be lower than in previous studies done in a nonoccupational setting. After correction for sampling bias, the specificity for all frequencies combined was well within the range reported in other studies. Only 1.9% of ears (1/53) that were able to hear all four audioscope frequencies were found by conventional audiometry to have clinically important hearing loss defined as a 25 dB hearing level averaged over the speech frequencies. Hence, the audioscope can be used as a rapid initial test in workers who otherwise would not have access to hearing screening.
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Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto, Canada.
Pasut
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001299:Audiometry; D004651:Employment; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009787:Occupational Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity