Hearing threshold levels for a population of 11 to 35 year old Australian females and males

Abstract

Objective: Detailed information on the hearing threshold levels (HTLs) of young Australians was gathered as part of a large-scale study of the relationship between HTL and leisure-noise exposure in young Australians. Design: HTL data for the study population (18–35 year olds) was carefully collected, as well as otoscopy, tympanometry, contra-lateral acoustic reflexes, and otoacoustic emissions (transient and distortion product), together with a comprehensive hearing health history – both past and present. Study sample: The sample cohort consisted of 1407 individuals, females and males. Results: Prior to analysis, HTL data were filtered according to both a ‘Low’ and ‘High’ set of exclusion criteria. The results obtained for both high-screen and low-screen datasets were around +5 dB above the traditionally accepted values of audiometric zero. This is consistent with previous published reports. Conclusion: Comparison with ‘ISO 7029 Acoustics: Statistical distribution of hearing thresholds as a function of age’ indicated that threshold values for this dataset have a similar distribution to those of the Standard. This data provides a suitable reference HTL (‘normative’) database for young Australians.

Key Words::

• Hearing thresholds
• adolescents
• hearing loss

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contributions of Denise Macoun, Katrina Freeston, Jenny Rosen, Jermy Pang, Monica Gibian, and Kay McIntosh (data collection); and the Australian Government, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging, Office of Hearing Services, for providing financial support.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.