| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/R26924/01 |
| Title: |
Development and Assessment of Reliability of a Self-Administered Hearing Test For the Elderly. |
| Principal Investigator: |
Culling, Professor J |
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| Department: |
Sch of Psychology |
| Organisation: |
Cardiff University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 July 2001 |
Ends: |
31 August 2002 |
Value (£): |
43,427
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Instrumentation Eng. & Dev. |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Sensorineural hearing loss is common among the elderly, but the onset and severity is variable across individuals. A quick and economical screening method is needed. Conventional, pure-tone audiometry, is effective at detecting hearing loss, but is impractical to perform in the field, because it is highly susceptible to background sound, and variations in equipment. Consequently, screening methods have hitherto used subjective reports of hearing difficulty via questionaires, which are less reliable at detecting hearing loss than audiometry (Davies et al., 1991). The proposal is to develop and assess a hearing test that gives reliable objective measures of hearing difficulty, yet is self-administered using the patient's own audio equipment. The idea is to produce an audio cassette with a speech-in-noise test on it. The patient can self-administer the test, writing down a list of verballypresented words in background noise. This test has four advantages. It will not require absolute silence in the testing environment. It should be robust against the variable frequency responses of playback devices. It should not require level calibration, because the thresholds for speech in noise vary little with sound level. Finally, it has ecological validity, because it addresses the principal difficulty that the elderly experience. Development of the test will require confirmation of these advantages in the laboratory and in the field using elderly participants. The proposal is to assess the reliability of speech-in-noise thresholds using a wide variety of audio equipment.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.cf.ac.uk |