The Sensitivity of Adolescent School-Based Hearing Screens Is Significantly Improved by Adding High Frequencies.
Publication/Presentation Date
12-1-2016
Abstract
High frequency hearing loss (HFHL), often related to hazardous noise, affects one in six U.S. adolescents. Yet, only 20 states include school-based hearing screens for adolescents. Only six states test multiple high frequencies. Study objectives were to (1) compare the sensitivity of state school-based hearing screens for adolescents to gold standard sound-treated booth testing and (2) consider the effect of adding multiple high frequencies and two-step screening on sensitivity/specificity. Of 134 eleventh-grade participants (2013-2014), 43 of the 134 (32%) did not pass sound-treated booth testing, and 27 of the 43 (63%) had HFHL. Sensitivity/specificity of the most common protocol (1,000, 2,000, 4,000 Hz at 20 dB HL) for these hearing losses was 25.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [13.5, 41.2]) and 85.7% (95% CI [76.8, 92.2]), respectively. A protocol including 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 Hz at 20 dB HL significantly improved sensitivity to 76.7% (95% CI [61.4, 88.2]), p < .001. Two-step screening maintained specificity (84.6%, 95% CI [75.5, 91.3]). Adolescent school-based hearing screen sensitivity improves with high frequencies.
Volume
32
Issue
6
First Page
416
Last Page
422
ISSN
1546-8364
Published In/Presented At
Sekhar, D. L., Zalewski, T. R., Beiler, J. S., Czarnecki, B., Barr, A. L., King, T. S., & Paul, I. M. (2016). The Sensitivity of Adolescent School-Based Hearing Screens Is Significantly Improved by Adding High Frequencies. The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses, 32(6), 416–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840516654004
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
27302960
Department(s)
Department of Surgery
Document Type
Article