A language-independent hearing screening self-test at school-entry

TL;DR

A new hearing test for young children uses sounds and works across different languages and countries, offering a potential global solution for hearing screening.

Contribution

The Sound Ear Check is a novel, language-independent hearing screening method validated across multiple countries and age groups.

Findings

The Sound Ear Check demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity for detecting hearing loss over 30 dB HL.

Test results were consistent across seven different countries, showing cultural independence.

Three test procedures all effectively identified hearing impairments in children aged 5 to 9 years.

Abstract

The usage of a tablet-based language-independent self-test involving the recognition of ecological sounds in background noise, the Sound Ear Check, was investigated. The results of 692 children, aged between 5 and 9 years and 4 months, recruited in seven different countries, were used to analyze the validity and the cultural independence of test. Three different test procedures, namely a monaural adaptive procedure, a procedure presenting the sounds dichotically in diotic noise, and a procedure presenting all the sounds with a fixed signal-to-noise ratio and a stopping rule were studied. Results showed high sensitivity and specificity of all three procedures to detect conductive, sensorineural and mixed hearing loss > 30 dB HL. Additionally, the data collected from different countries were consistent, and there were no clinically relevant differences observed between countries. Therefore, the Sound Ear Check can offer an international hearing screening test for young children at school entry, solving the current lack of hearing screening services on a global scale.

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