Digit Triplet Test Hearing Screening With Broadband and Low-Pass Filtered Noise in a Middle-Aged Population
Charlotte Vercammen1, Tine Goossens, Jan Wouters
1Research Group Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Objectives:
This study investigated whether age affects Flemish Digit Triplet Test (DTT) scores, as well as sensitivity and specificity of the test to detect high-frequency hearing impairment in middle age.
Design:
DTT performance in broadband and low-pass filtered noise was assessed for 21 young and 61 middle-aged persons with normal-hearing sensitivity. Cutoff values based on their performance were used to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of the DTT as a screening tool in 145 middle-aged persons, with varying audiometric profiles.
Results:
DTT performance for normal-hearing persons depended on age in both noise conditions. For low-pass filtered noise, the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity also increased when age-adjusted cutoff values were applied for screening in middle age.
Conclusions:
The Flemish DTT with broadband noise had high sensitivity and specificity to detect high-frequency hearing impairment in middle age. Similar results were obtained for low-pass filtered noise when cutoff values for referral were age adjusted.
