Modification of a Method for Diagnosing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Sustained During Military Service

Moore (2020) proposed a method for diagnosing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) sustained during military service, based on an analysis of the shapes of the audiograms of military personnel. The method, denoted M-NIHL, was estimated to have high sensitivity but low-to-moderate specificity. Here, a revised version of the method, denoted rM-NIHL, was developed that gave a better balance between sensitivity and specificity. A database of 285 audiograms of military noise-exposed men was created by merging two previously used databases with a new database, randomly shuffling, and then splitting into two, one for development of the revised method and one for evaluation. Two comparable databases of audiograms of 185 non-exposed men were also created, again one for development and one for evaluation. Based on the evaluation databases, the rM-NIHL method has slightly lower sensitivity than the M-NIHL method, but the specificity is markedly higher. The two methods have similar overall diagnostic performance. If an individual is classified as having NIHL based on a positive diagnosis for either ear, the rM-NIHL method has a sensitivity of 0.98 and a specificity of 0.63. Based on a positive diagnosis for both ears, the rM-NIHL method has a sensitivity of 0.76 and a specificity of 0.95.