Detection of hearing problems in Aboriginal and Torres strait islander children: a comparison between clinician-administered and self-administrated hearing tests

Abstract

Objective: This study evaluated the agreement of self-administered tests with clinician-administered tests in detecting hearing loss and speech-in-noise deficits in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children.

Design: Children completed clinician-administered audiometry, self-administered automatic audiometry (AutoAud), clinician-administered Listening in Spatialised Noise – Sentences test and self-administered tablet-based hearing game Sound Scouts. Comparisons were made between tests to determine the agreement of the self-administered tests with clinician-administered tests in detecting hearing loss and speech-in-noise deficits.

Study sample: Two hundred and ninety seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 4–14 years from three schools.

Results: Acceptable threshold differences of ≤5 dB between AutoAud and manual audiometry hearing thresholds were found for 88% of thresholds, with a greater agreement for older than for younger children. Consistent pass/fail results on the Sound Scouts speech-in-quiet measure and manual audiometry were found for 81% of children. Consistent pass/fail results on the Sound Scouts speech-in-noise measure and LiSN-S high-cue condition were found for 73% of children.

Conclusions: This study shows good potential in using self-administered applications as initial tests for hearing problems in children. These tools may be especially valuable for children in remote locations and those from low socio-economic backgrounds who may not have easy access to healthcare.

Keywords:

• Self-administered hearing tests
• automatic audiometry
• spatial processing disorder
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participating schools and health services in the three communities, Mark Mitchell from the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, the audiology students from the University of Northern Illinois, Meagan Ward and Belinda Lesina from Australian Hearing, and Pam Jackson from the National Acoustic Laboratories, for their help with collecting data for this study.

Portions of this study were presented at the Audiology Australia conference in Sydney, May 20–23, 2018, and the Otitis Media Australia conference in Darwin, August 14–16, 2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department’s Indigenous Advancement Scheme (Project 4-1M7F2PW). Harvey Dillon acknowledges the support of the Australian Department of Health, Macquarie University and the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.