STIMULUS AND TRANSDUCER EFFECTS ON THRESHOLD

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Int J Audiol
• Personal Author:
  Flamme, Gregory A. ; Geda, Kyle ; McGregor, Kara ; Wyllys, Krista ; Deiters, Kristy K. ; Murphy, William J. ; Stephenson, Mark R.
• Description:
  Objective
  
  This study examined differences in thresholds obtained under Sennheiser HDA200 circumaural earphones using pure tone, equivalent rectangular noise bands, and 1/3 octave noise bands relative to thresholds obtained using Telephonics TDH-39P supra-aural earphones.
  
  Design
  
  Thresholds were obtained via each transducer and stimulus condition six times within a 10-day period.
  
  Study Sample
  
  Forty-nine adults were selected from a prior study to represent low, moderate, and high threshold reliability.
  
  Results
  
  The results suggested that (1) only small adjustments were needed to reach equivalent TDH-39P thresholds, (2) pure-tone thresholds obtained with HDA200 circumaural earphones had reliability equal to or better than those obtained using TDH-39P earphones, (3) the reliability of noise-band thresholds improved with broader stimulus bandwidth and was either equal to or better than pure-tone thresholds, and (4) frequency-specificity declined with stimulus bandwidths greater than one Equivalent Rectangular Band, which could complicate early detection of hearing changes that occur within a narrow frequency range.
  
  Conclusions
  
  These data suggest that circumaural earphones such as the HDA200 headphones provide better reliability for audiometric testing as compared to the TDH-39P earphones. These data support the use of noise bands, preferably ERB noises, as stimuli for audiometric monitoring.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Aged Audiometry, Pure-Tone Auditory Threshold Female Humans Male Middle Aged Young Adult
• Keywords:
  Audiometry Noise-induced Hearing Loss Occupational Health Reliability
• Source:
  Int J Audiol. 54(0 1):S19-S29
• Pubmed ID:
  25549164
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4559258
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  54
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7a53b57990083c0fb85d5f2b6c81316dd7ea90d06c8ff7917bf0be6a13247de6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/34072/cdc_34072_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.09 MB ]