title: Brazilian Portuguese Hearing in Noise Test (HINT): different interpretation criteria for individuals' responses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability to recognize the sounds of speech enables an efficient communication. This ability must always be considered when communication disorders are evaluated. In this study, sentences of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT), originally developed in English and adapted to Brazilian Portuguese, were used to evaluate speech recognition in silence and in the presence of noise. Although this test can be an important clinical tool, it is noticed that it has not been used in audiological clinical practice in Brazil. One possible reason is the lack of standardization of some aspects of the test, including the methods adopted to analyze the patient's answers.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to analyze different judgment criteria of individuals' answers during sentence recognition thresholds measurement using the HINT in Brazilian Portuguese.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted with 30 young adults (three groups of 10 people), between 18 and 25 years old, of both genders, with normal hearing. HINT sentences were adapted to Brazilian Portuguese and speech recognition thresholds were determined in the presence of noise by using three judgment criteria published in Brazilian literature. A single variation analysis was performed to compare the average threshold between the three groups. The maximum error probability to reject the null hypothesis was 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean and standard deviations of thresholds, respectively, were: 59.90 ± 1.43 dB SPL; 59.60 ± 0.53 dB SPL and 59.95 ± 0.6 dB SPL. There was no statistically significant difference between the means (F = 0.398; p> 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regardless the judging criteria used, results obtained in all groups were equivalent.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Rafaela do Couto
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Denise Costa
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Menezes
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Fernando Augusto
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Pacífico
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Karina Paes
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Advíncula
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Recife (PE), Brasil.
authors.forename: Silvana Maria Sobral
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Griz
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult