TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid Assessment of Subjective Hearing Complaints With a Modified Version of the Tinnitus and Hearing Survey
AU - Davidson, Alyssa
AU - Ellis, Gregory
AU - Sherlock, La Guinn P.
AU - Schurman, Jaclyn
AU - Brungart, Douglas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - Hearing difficulties are frequently reported by patients in audiology clinics, including patients with normal audiometric thresholds. However, because all individuals experience some difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, it can be difficult to assess hearing complaints objectively across patients. Normative values help address this issue by providing an objective cutoff score for determining what is or is not clinically significant. The goal of this study was to establish normative values for the four-item hearing subscale of the Tinnitus and Hearing Survey (THS-H). Respondents completing the THS-H rate the level of difficulty understanding speech in the situations most commonly reported as being difficult: in the presence of noise, on TV or in movies, soft voices and group conversations. In this study, 22,583 US Service Members (SMs) completed the THS-H using an 11-point scale ranging from 0 (not a problem) to 10 (a very big problem). Responses to the four items were summed to produce values between 0 and 40. The distribution of the final scores was analyzed based on severity of hearing loss, age, and sex. Only 5% of SMs with clinically normal hearing scored above 27, so this score was selected as a cutoff for “clinically significant hearing problems.” Due to its ease of administration and interpretation, the THS-H could be a useful tool for identifying patients with subjective hearing difficulty warranting audiological evaluation and management.
AB - Hearing difficulties are frequently reported by patients in audiology clinics, including patients with normal audiometric thresholds. However, because all individuals experience some difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, it can be difficult to assess hearing complaints objectively across patients. Normative values help address this issue by providing an objective cutoff score for determining what is or is not clinically significant. The goal of this study was to establish normative values for the four-item hearing subscale of the Tinnitus and Hearing Survey (THS-H). Respondents completing the THS-H rate the level of difficulty understanding speech in the situations most commonly reported as being difficult: in the presence of noise, on TV or in movies, soft voices and group conversations. In this study, 22,583 US Service Members (SMs) completed the THS-H using an 11-point scale ranging from 0 (not a problem) to 10 (a very big problem). Responses to the four items were summed to produce values between 0 and 40. The distribution of the final scores was analyzed based on severity of hearing loss, age, and sex. Only 5% of SMs with clinically normal hearing scored above 27, so this score was selected as a cutoff for “clinically significant hearing problems.” Due to its ease of administration and interpretation, the THS-H could be a useful tool for identifying patients with subjective hearing difficulty warranting audiological evaluation and management.
KW - hearing
KW - military medicine
KW - surveys and questionnaires
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174257032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/23312165231198374
DO - 10.1177/23312165231198374
M3 - Article
C2 - 37822285
AN - SCOPUS:85174257032
SN - 2331-2165
VL - 27
JO - Trends in Hearing
JF - Trends in Hearing
ER -