The Hearing Scale Test for hearing screening of school-age children.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to demonstrate a new modified hearing screening method that can rapidly screen hearing and provide stratified test values for each screened ear of children.


METHODS
The proposed Hearing Scale Test (HST) and pure-tone screening (PTS) were applied to 384 school-age children. PTS involved applying four test tones to each tested ear: 500 Hz at 25 dB, and 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz at 20 dB; and classifying the results as "pass" (normal hearing in the ear) or "fail" (possible hearing impairment). The HST employs ten stratified hearing scales from S(1) to S(10), with each hearing scale containing four test tones and where adjacent scales differ from each other by 5 B, ranging from 0 dB (S(1)) to 45 dB (S(10)). The four test tones of hearing scale S(5) are the same hearing criteria and the median reference standard of the stimulus level in the HST. Scales S(1)-S(5) on the HST are equivalent to a PTS "pass" result, while S(6)-S(10) and no response (NR) are equivalent to a PTS "fail" result.


RESULTS
The two screening methods produced comparable "pass" and "fail" results. In the HST, the "pass" results were further stratified as S(1) in 4 ears, S(2) in 52 ears, S(3) in 226 ears, S(4) in 272 ears, and S(5) in 169 ears, while the "fail" results were stratified as S(6) in 23 ears, S(7) in 12 ears, S(8) in 1 ear, S(9) in 2 ears, S(10) in 5 ears, and no response (NR) in 2 ears. The hearing screening results of the HST are interpreted as follows: scales S(1)-S(5) indicate normal hearing, scales S(6) and S(7) indicate possible hearing impairment, and scales S(8)-S(10) and NR indicate confirmed hearing impairment.


CONCLUSIONS
Conventional PTS only gives a pass/fail result for each screened ear, lacks hearing status assessment, and lacks stratified test values to be recorded for follow-up. In contrast, the HST has stratified hearing scales for each screened ear, which reflects the current hearing status and provides test values that can be recorded for follow-up.
Liao
Wen-Huei
WH
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Lien
Chiang-Feng
CF
Young
Shuenn-Tsong
ST
D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013624:Taiwan; D014584:User-Computer Interface