The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has regularly included evaluations of the auditory system in its health examination surveys. These evaluations have included one or more of the following: a brief medical examination of the ear, interview questions regarding hearing ability and ear diseases, tympanometry (a test of middle ear function), pure tone air conduction thresholds, pure tone bone conduction thresholds, and/or speech discrimination testing. Sometimes these evaluations were done on all NHANES examinees, and some surveys included hearing evaluations on only a subset of examinees (such as children or adults).

au.pdf

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection

United States