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Finding an effective hearing testing protocol to identify hearing loss and middle ear disease in school-aged children
1Evergreen School District, San Jose, CA, USA.
Insights
A new hearing testing protocol effectively identified more middle ear disease in children than traditional methods. Repeating tests after four weeks is crucial for accurate referrals in pediatric audiology.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Audiology
- Otology
- Public Health
Background:
- Early identification of hearing loss and middle ear disease in school-aged children is critical for academic success.
- Current hearing screening methods may not adequately detect all cases of middle ear pathology.
- Betty Neuman's Systems Model provides a framework for understanding child health within their environment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To define an effective hearing testing protocol for elementary school-aged children.
- To compare the diagnostic yield of a combined pure tone threshold audiometry and tympanometry protocol versus pure tone threshold audiometry alone.
- To validate the necessity of repeat testing for accurate diagnosis.
Main Methods:
- A descriptive study involving 41 elementary school-aged children.
- Comparison of two hearing assessment protocols: 1) Pure tone threshold audiometry with tympanometry, 2) Pure tone threshold audiometry alone.
- Application of Betty Neuman's Systems Model as the conceptual framework.
Main Results:
- The research protocol identified significantly more ears with middle ear disease (n=22) compared to pure tone audiometry alone (n=9).
- Both methods identified the same number of ears with hearing loss (n=26).
- A significant difference between initial and repeat test results highlights the need for re-testing.
Conclusions:
- The combined protocol enhances the identification of middle ear disease in children.
- Pure tone audiometry alone may underestimate the prevalence of middle ear issues.
- Repeating hearing tests after a four-week interval is essential for accurate referrals and diagnosis in pediatric audiology.
Abstract:
This descriptive study defined an effective hearing testing protocol for elementary school-aged children (N = 41). It compared the identification of hearing loss and middle ear disease using pure tone threshold audiometry with tympanometry to using pure tone threshold audiometry. Betty Neuman's Systems Model was used as the conceptual framework for this study. Results showed that a greater number of ears were identified with middle ear disease using the research protocol (n = 22) than would have been identified with middle ear disease (n = 9) using pure tone audiometry alone. The same number of ears (n = 26) were identified with hearing loss using either method. The study further demonstrates a difference between the first and second hearing test results using the specified protocol that validates the necessity for repeating the two tests after 4 weeks before making referrals.