1992 Volume 35 Issue 5 Pages 595-604
The accuracy of screening hearing test for regular physical examination was analyzed by the comparison between the results of screening hearing test and those of standardized pure tone audiometry. The subjects were 147 persons (124 males, 23 females) which showed no response against the test pure tone of either 30dB at 1kHz or 40dB at 4kHz produced by screening audiometer.
The results obtained were as follows;
1) The results of screening hearing test and those of standardized pure tone audiometry corresponded in all 4 test frequencies in 91 subjects out of 147 (61.9%).
2) The results of screening hearing test and those of standardized pure tone audiometry corresponded in both 1kHz and 4kHz in 224 ears out of 294 (76.2%).
3) The accuracy of screening hearing test was 89.1% at 1kHz and 82.0% at 4kHz.
4) The accuracy of screening hearing test was higher in males than in females.
5) The age of the subject did not affect on the accuracy of screening hearing test.
6) There was no remarkable difference of the accuracy of screening hearing test in both ears.
7) The more the test frequencies with no responses in screening hearing test were, the lower the accuracy was.
8) The false negative rate at test frequencies with positive responses in screening hearing test was only 0.5% at 1kHz and 8.5% at 4kHz.
9) The false positive rate at test frequencies with no responses in screening hearing test was 27.7% at 1kHz and 25.5% at 4kHz.
10) Based upon these results, it was concluded that the factors affecting on the accuracy of screening hearing test included test frequency, sex of the subject and the number of test frequencies with no responses. Also, it was suggested that the main factor inducing the deterioration of accuracy of screening hearing test was the false positive rate at test frequencies with no responses but not the false negative rate at test frequencies with positive responses.
