Understanding Self-reported Hearing Disability in Adults With Normal Hearing.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Hearing Science
• Speech and Hearing Sciences

Background:

• Many individuals with clinically normal hearing, defined by audiometric thresholds within normal limits, report experiencing hearing disability (HD) in daily life.
• This discrepancy highlights a gap in understanding the factors contributing to perceived hearing difficulties beyond standard audiological assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictive power of demographic and auditory variables for self-reported HD in individuals with audiologically normal hearing.
• To identify specific measures that can explain and predict hearing disability despite normal audiometric thresholds.

Main Methods:

• One hundred eleven adults (ages 19-74) with normal hearing underwent assessment.
• Measures included the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ12) for self-reported HD, patient history (age, sex, noise exposure, tinnitus), and various hearing tests (extended high-frequency audiometry, otoacoustic emissions, auditory brainstem response, cognitive assessment, FM detection).
• Multivariate regression analysis was used to predict SSQ12 scores.

Main Results:

• A history of impulse noise exposure, speech-intelligibility index, and FM detection threshold were significant predictors of SSQ12 scores, accounting for 40% of the variance.
• These factors accurately predicted self-reported HD with 89% sensitivity and 86% specificity.

Conclusions:

• Self-reported hearing disability in individuals with normal audiometric thresholds can be predicted by factors beyond standard hearing tests.
• History of impulse noise exposure, speech intelligibility, and FM detection are key indicators of perceived hearing difficulties in this population.