Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 1, 2026
Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
Fall risk screening protocol for older hearing clinic patients
Robin E Criter1, Julie A Honaker1,2
1a Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders , University of Nebraska-Lincoln , Lincoln , NE , USA and.
Objective:
The primary purposes of this study were (1) to describe measures that may contrast audiology patients who fall from those who do not fall and (2) to evaluate the clinical performance of measures that could be easily used for fall risk screening in a mainstream audiology hearing clinic.
Design:
Cross-sectional study Study sample: Thirty-six community-dwelling audiology patient participants and 27 community-dwelling non-audiology patients over 60 years of age.
Results:
The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) most accurately identified patients with a recent fall (sensitivity: 76.0%), while the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) most accurately identified patients without a recent fall (specificity: 90.9%). A combination of measures used in a protocol-including HHIE, DHI, number of medications, and the Timed Up and Go test-resulted in good, accurate identification of patients with or without a recent history of falls (92.0% sensitivity, 100% specificity).
Conclusions:
This study reports good sensitivity and excellent specificity for identifying patients with and without a recent history of falls when measures were combined into a screening protocol. Despite previously reported barriers, effective fall risk screenings may be performed in hearing clinic settings with measures often readily accessible to audiologists.
