Article
The assessment of noise induced hearing loss: Can modern procedures for the measurement of speech intelligibility replace the Freiburg speech test?
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Published: | July 8, 2008 |
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In Germany, in the guidelines to assess a hearing loss caused by noise at work [Ref. 3], the Freiburg speech test [Ref. 2] is recommended for the measurement of speech intelligibility in silence. During the last decades there had been some modifications concerning the procedures to determine the percentage hearing loss based on the speech audiogram. The Freiburg speech test, however, stayed as the recommended test, irrespective of many critical objections (e.g. differences in difficulty of the lists).
The monosyllabic rhyme test by von Wallenberg und Kollmeier [Ref. 5] in its short version [Ref. 1] and the Göttingen sentence test [Ref. 4] are more modern test procedures to measure speech intelligibility. These tests are well evaluated and all lists have the same difficulty. Various studies were carried out to compare these tests with the Freiburg speech test, based on the question, whether they can replace the old test in hearing loss assessment. Concerning the monosyllabic tests, a comparison of the results from both procedures at several presentation levels was performed. In addition, the effects of presentation form (with/without a carrier sentence) and response format (with/without response alternatives) were investigated.
Up to now all comparisons have demonstrated that the modern speech tests can be used as alternatives in hearing loss assessment. Merely simple modifications concerning the presentation levels (reduction of 15 dB when using the rhyme test) have to be taken into account. In future investigations a verification of the feasibility of the recommended modifications in the “everyday” assessment setting is needed.
Supported by MWK “Audiologie-Initiative Niedersachsen”, V2.22 04032
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