Efficient estimation of auditory sensitivity and cognitive status using spoken-digit tests.

项目摘要/摘要。未经治疗的年龄相关性听力损失（ARHL）是最常见的 导致美国 55 岁及以上人群生活质量下降的原因。有3000万 这个国家有听力障碍的成年人，其中许多人从未接受过听力测试。一 原因是缺乏方便、廉价且有效的听力测试 个人和听力专业人士。该项目的目标是开发一系列测试 听觉敏感性和相关认知状态共同衡量功能性听力损失。 如果此类测试得到广泛应用，大量怀疑自己可能听力受损的人 损失将带走他们。一天之内接到超过 3000 个电话就证明了这一点 电话管理的国家听力测试（NHT），无商业宣传，仅在 对几篇报纸文章的回应。识别语音中的三位数序列 NHT 中使用的噪声背景已被证明与传统的 听力损失的纯音测量。噪声中数字 (DIN) 测试最近被证明是 筛查特别有效，因为它们可靠、方便且不需要声音 摊位或训练有素的管理人员。一系列 DIN 测试将 旨在帮助区分由于灵敏度损失而导致的语音识别不良和语音识别不良 反映认知处理减少的识别。测试将在 搭载 Android 或 iOS 操作系统的智能手机、平板电脑、台式机和笔记本电脑。 NHT 早期针对固定电话开发（Watson 等人，2012 年；Williams 等人，2014 年）， 自 2014 年以来，已有近 130,000 名来电者进行了记录。这些数据加上来自 700 名来电者的听力图 接受 DIN 测试以及其他标准听力测试的成年人（退伍军人）将 指导测试开发。可选的口头而不是键盘响应将进行测试 适合有运动控制问题的儿童和老年人。验证研究将 在三个大学听力中心对 590 名参与者进行了测试。 DIN 灵敏度测试将在 与纯音听力图相关，而认知状态测试将与已建立的进行比较 测试工作记忆、执行功能和选择性注意力。 听力图斜率 将是 通过比较使用低频掩蔽噪声的 DIN 测试性能与使用 语音频谱噪声。这个在各种平台上进行的新测试系列将设计用于 在家庭、学校、初级保健医生办公室、听力诊所和嘈杂的地方使用 企业。广泛使用这一系列筛选测试可以使个人了解 听力健康就像在浴室秤上称重一样容易。

Project Summary/Abstract. Untreated age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is the most prevalent cause of reduced quality of life for persons 55 and older in the US. There are 30+ million hearing-impaired adults in this country, many of whom have never had a hearing test. One reason is the lack of convenient, inexpensive and valid hearing tests that are available to both individuals and hearing professionals. The goal of this project is to develop a family of tests of auditory sensitivity and of related cognitive status that together measure functional hearing loss. If such tests were widely available large numbers of those who suspect they may have hearing loss would take them. This was demonstrated by over 3000 calls in a single day to the telephone-administered National Hearing Test (NHT), without commercial promotion, only in response to a few newspaper articles. The identification of spoken three-digit sequences in a noise background, as used in the NHT, has been shown to correlate strongly with traditional pure-tone measures of hearing loss. Digit-in-noise (DIN) tests have recently been shown to be particularly efficient for screening, since they are reliable, convenient, and require neither sound booths nor highly trained personnel for their administration. A family of DIN tests will be designed to help distinguish poor speech recognition due to sensitivity loss from poor recognition that reflects reduced cognitive processing. The tests will be implemented on smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptop computers with Android or iOS operating systems. The NHT developed earlier for landline phones (Watson et al., 2012; Williams et al., 2014), has been taken by nearly 130,000 callers since 2014. Those data, plus audiograms from 700+ adults (veterans) who were given the DIN test together with other standard audiometry, will guide test development. Optional spoken rather than keypad responses will make the test accessible to children and to elderly adults with motor-control problems. Validation studies will test 590 participants in three university hearing centers. DIN sensitivity tests will be validated in relation to pure-tone audiograms, while cognitive-status tests will be compared to established tests of working memory, executive function, and selective attention. Audiogram slope will be estimated by comparing DIN-test performance using low-frequency masking noise, to that with speech-spectrum noise. This new family of tests on a variety of platforms, will be designed for use in the home, in schools, in primary-care physicians’ offices, in hearing clinics and in noisy businesses. Widespread use of this family of screening tests can make personal knowledge of hearing health as accessible as weighing oneself on the bathroom scale.