Impedance measures and pure-tone screening of college students.
Normative data from tympanometry and static compliance measures were presented for 355 freshmen entering college. Only one ear was tested. A lax criterion in tympanometry yielded a failure rate of 4%; pure-tone screening (20 db at 1 and 2 kc/s, 25 db at 4 kc/s) yielded a failure rate of 8%. In 90% of Ss the impedance (lax criterion) and pure-tone screening tests agreed in identifying an ear as normal or abnormal. Excluding 5% of the cases at each end of the continuum, 90% had static compliance in the range 0.30-1.15 cc; the middle 62% had compliance values of 0.45-0.89 cc. The distribution of tympanogram types and static compliance values were not significantly different for men and women, or for R and L ears. Impedance measures and pure-tone thresholds disagreed half the time on "Pass" and "Fail," although they showed the same proportions of "Pass" and "Fail," suggesting that two different aspects of hearing were being assessed.
D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students