Clinical Interpretation of Word-Recognition Scores for Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Confidence Intervals, Limits, and Levels.
Ear Hear
; 44(5): 1133-1139, 2023.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37005369
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Confidence levels were established to determine if a word-recognition score is within the expected range for a hearing loss group (based on 3-frequency pure-tone average) or significantly below or above the expected range.DESIGN:
Two large clinical databases were mined to produce data-sets composed of word-recognition scores obtained with Q/MASS NU-6 materials and VA NU-6 materials for patients with average hearing losses ranging from 0 to 70 dB HL. Percentiles representing scores that are below (2.5%, 5%, and 10%) and above (90%, 95%, and 97.5%) the expected range (defined as the 80% confidence interval) were established. To estimate the distribution of scores and percentiles for the Auditec NU-6 materials (for which a large database is not available) Q/MASS scores were transformed to Auditec scores based on published psychometric functions.RESULTS:
The resulting confidence levels and expected ranges of word-recognition scores should be useful for interpreting the relationship between a score and the distribution of scores for the patient's hearing loss severity. Confidence levels are described as low, moderate, and high corresponding to the statistical level of assurance that a score is lower or higher than the expected score.CONCLUSIONS:
The confidence levels and expected ranges may be helpful for interpreting word-recognition scores obtained with three widely used sets of NU-6 test materials.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Speech Perception
/
Deafness
/
Hearing Loss
/
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Ear Hear
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos