Comparison of audiometric screening criteria for the identification of noise-induced hearing loss in adolescents.

摘要

PURPOSE: To ascertain whether current pure-tone school hearing screening criteria used across the United States are adequate for the early identification of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in adolescents. METHOD: School-based pure-tone hearing screening protocols were collected, reviewed, and consolidated from 46 state agencies. A retrospective categorical analysis of air-conduction audiometric thresholds from a computerized database of 9th-grade (n = 376) and 12th-grade (n = 265) students from a suburban high school was conducted. The database analysis was designed to determine whether each screening protocol would identify high-frequency notched audiometric configurations suggestive of NIHL when using the noise notch criteria described by A. S. Niskar et al. (2001). RESULTS: All of the school-based hearing screening criteria identified significantly (p