title: Hearing loss screening tests for adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The early detection of hearing loss has been studied widely in newborns due to the emerging technologies for diagnosis and treatment. There are detailed protocols for this goal. Nonetheless, hearing loss screening in adults has become more important lately with the increase of the life expectancy, an expected change in the Mexican population pyramid towards a rectangular shape in the next 50 years (with increased hearing loss prevalence) and the creation of public policies for social security such as the "Seguro Popular". There are no Mexican studies about hearing loss screening in adults. The aim of this work was to assess a tone emission and a questionnaire as screening tools for hearing loss in adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample size of 500 individuals without otology pathology from the outpatient clinics at a general hospital. An otoscopy, 2 screening tests (tone emission and questionnaire) and tonal audiometry were performed on all subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The questionnaire turned out to be a sensitive test but with low specificity, while the tone emission was less sensitive but more specific with a higher rate of precision. In this study, the best result was achieved by a combined strategy using the two tests above, with a precision of 90%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The best screening strategy proposed by this study for hearing loss in adults is a questionnaire and tone emission test, which guarantees complete hearing assessment in objective and subjective manners, performed quickly and without special training.
authors: División de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de cabeza y cuello, Secretaría de salud, Hospital General Dr. Manuel Gea González, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal México, México. perlita.b@gmail.com
authors: Perla B
authors: PB
authors: Becerril-Ramírez
authors: Dina F
authors: DF
authors: González-Sánchez
authors: Angélica
authors: A
authors: Gómez-García
authors: Rafael
authors: R
authors: Figueroa-Moreno
authors: Gerardo A
authors: GA
authors: Bravo-Escobar
authors: Miguel A
authors: MA
authors: García de la Cruz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires