Discrimination of degrees of auditory performance from the digits-in-noise test based on hearing status
Nicole M. Armstrong, Berthe C. Oosterloo, Pauline H. Croll, M. Arfan Ikram, André Goedegebure
Abstract
Objective To discriminate among degrees of auditory performance of the Digits-in-Noise (DIN) test.Design We performed Pearson’s correlations and age- and sex-adjusted linear regression models to examine the correlation between pure-tone average (PTA) from pure-tone audiometric tests and speech recognition thresholds (SRT) from the DIN test. Then, optimal SRT cut-points by PTA-defined hearing status (0–25 dB HL [normal], 26–40 dB HL [mild hearing loss], 41–50 dB HL [moderate hearing loss]) were compared across three methods: Youden, Nearest, and Liu. SRT-defined categories of auditory performance were compared to PTA-defined hearing categories to examine the convergence of similar categories.Study Sample: 3422 Rotterdam Study participants aged 51–98 years between 2011 and 2014Results The correlation between SRT and PTA was 0.65 (95% Confidence Interval: 0.63, 0.67) in the overall sample. The variability of SRT explained by PTA after age and sex adjustment was 54%. Optimal cut-points for the overall sample across the three methods were: ≤ −5.55 dB SNR (normal); > −5.55 to ≤ −3.80 dB SNR (insufficient performance); > −3.80 dB SNR (poor performance). When comparing the SRT- or PTA-defined categories, 59.8% had concordant hearing categories and 40.2% had discordant hearing categories.Conclusions Discrimination of degrees of auditory performance may add greater utility of the DIN test.