DESIGN: A large-scale prospective survey collected patient-reported problems associated with tinnitus in 485 adults attending four major ENT clinics in Eastern and Southern mainland China.
RESULTS: The evidence suggests that patients in China express a narrower range of problem domains associated with the lived experience of tinnitus. While 13 tinnitus-related problem domains were confirmed, culture-specific adaptations included the addition uncomfortable (a novel concept not previously reported), and the potential exclusion of concepts such as intrusiveness, loss of control, loss of peace and loss of sense of self.
CONCLUSIONS: The sociocultural context of patients across China plays an important role in defining the vocabulary used to describe the patient-centred impacts of tinnitus. Possible explanatory factors include cultural differences in the meaning and relevance of certain concepts relating to self and in help-seeking behaviour, low health literacy and a different lexicon in Chinese compared to English to describe tinnitus-related problems.
DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE: Study 1 compared the FS measure obtained with MOL and 2IFC procedure at two centre frequencies (CFs) (1 and 4 kHz) in 21 normal-hearing listeners. Study 2 determined the FS measure using MOL at five CFs (0.5-8 kHz) in 32 normal-hearing and nine sensorineural hearing loss listeners and compared them with their thresholds in quiet.
RESULTS: FS measurements with MOL and 2IFC methods were highly correlated and had statistically comparable intra-subject test-retest reliability. FS measures determined with MOL were reduced in the hearing-impaired compared to normal-hearing listeners at the CF corresponding to their hearing loss. Linear regression analysis showed significant relationship between FS deterioration and quiet threshold loss (p
DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study that used a convenient sampling technique.
STUDY SAMPLE: One hundred and fifty-seven parents of typically developing children aged between 4 months and 7 years participated in the study. Forty-nine completed the Malay PEACH + in a pen-to-paper format (Aim 1). One hundred and eight parents completed PEACH + online (69 completed the Malay version and 39 the English version), and 20 of them completed the questionnaire twice (Aim 2).
RESULTS: The PEACH + in Malay showed high internal consistency and item-total correlation. The normative data revealed that scores for frequency of auditory behaviour increased rapidly with age until about 20 months and reached an asymptote of around 90% by about 40 months of age. A similar trend was observed for ease of listening scores, which asymptoted around 85%.
CONCLUSIONS: The validated Malay PEACH + Rating Scale can be used as a guide to monitor auditory functional performance and listening efforts of Malaysian children in real-world environments.
DESIGN: An online survey was disseminated through the British Academy of Audiology and ENT UK.
STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 191 hearing healthcare professionals responded to the survey.
RESULTS: Overall, while 63% of the respondents considered themselves to be adequately informed about APD, only 4% viewed themselves as very informed on the topic. Fewer than half of the respondents report screening (31%), diagnosing (14%), or managing (36%) cases of APD. For screening APD, professionals most commonly use auditory processing tests in adults and take case histories in children, whereas routine audiological procedures are the primary method for diagnosing APD in both adults and children. Although modifying the listening environment is a widely recommended management strategy for APD, half of the respondents indicated that a diagnosis of APD has no implications for patient management.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a critical need to promote APD-related training to ensure they can provide appropriate referrals and management.
DESIGN: Scoping review.
STUDY SAMPLE: 1261 studies from 4 databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Embase and Scopus) and 7 studies from grey literature were identified. After removing duplicates, 647 studies were screened for title and/or abstract, and five studies met the criteria and were included.
RESULTS: Audiologists reported offering a range of diagnostic assessment and rehabilitation services, including hearing aids, assistive listening devices, auditory training, and counselling. However, the uptake of hearing services was low; rates of hearing aid use among people with at least mild hearing loss were around 2.7%-4.4%; 6.5%-7.3% for those with at least moderate loss. There were no data on the outcomes from hearing services.
CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review highlighted the limited uptake of hearing services among adults in Malaysia, despite the existence of services. Furthermore, it revealed a lack of information about the factors contributing to this limited uptake. To address the burden of hearing loss, there is an urgent need to identify barriers to access, improve access and uptake, and evaluate the benefits of adult hearing services in Malaysia.
DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE: Study 1 determined ETSPL values in 25 normal-hearing subjects aged 18-25 years at seven test frequencies (500-8000 Hz). Study 2 assessed the intra- and inter-session test-retest threshold reliability in a separate group of 50 adult subjects.
RESULTS: The ETSPL values for the consumer IE deviated from the reference values for audiometric IEs, with the largest differences (7-9 dB) observed at 500 Hz across ear tips. This is likely related to shallow tip insertions. However, test-retest threshold variations were comparable to those reported for audiometric transducers.
CONCLUSIONS: Ear tip-specific corrections to the reference thresholds in the standards are required for calibration of consumer IEs used in low-cost audiometry when their ear tips only allow superficial insertion into the ear canal.
DESIGN: For each participant, the output of the initial hearing aid fitting was compared to DSL v5.0 Child prescriptive targets and again after the fitting was adjusted using coupler-based verification and RECD measures. Outcomes for initial and adjusted fittings were examined using the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII), Parent's Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) rating scale, and speech perception tests in quiet and noise.
STUDY SAMPLE: Sixty-eight children aged 3 months to 17 years with moderate to profound hearing loss participated in the study.
RESULTS: Fit-to-targets improved significantly after hearing aids were adjusted to match targets to within 5 dB RMSE. Adjusted hearing aids provided increased aided audibility compared to initial fittings and resulted in improved speech perception scores and parent-reported hearing performance. Fifty percent of the children aged 6 to 17 years preferred their adjusted fitting compared to 10% who preferred their initial fitting.
CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in fit-to-target to a validated paediatric prescriptive formula using best practice procedures can result in improved auditory outcomes and possible self-reported satisfaction.
DESIGN: Part 1 involved electroacoustic measurement and biological calibration of a laptop-earphone pair used for the computer-based audiometry (CBA). Part 2 compared CBA thresholds obtained without a sound booth with those measured using the gold-standard clinical audiometry.
STUDY SAMPLE: 17 young normal-hearing volunteers (Part 1) and 43 normal and hearing loss subjects (Part 2) recruited from an audiology clinic via convenience sampling.
RESULTS: The transducer-device combination produced outputs suitable for measuring thresholds down to 0 dB HL. Threshold pairs obtained from the CBA and clinical audiometry were highly correlated (Spearman's correlation coefficient, ρ = 0.92, p 25 dB HL.
CONCLUSIONS: The use of a computer-based audiometer application with consumer insert phone-earmuff combination can offer a cost-effective solution for boothless screening audiometry.
DESIGN: Qualitative content analysis on all textbooks used in Malaysian public schools in the year 2019 were conducted to identify the content and structure of information delivery through 11 years of formal education. Information related to hearing health was extracted and categorised according to the themes that emerged. Further analysis was done to characterise the usefulness of the information in promoting active hearing care based on the type of information delivered.
STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 148 elementary and secondary school textbooks were reviewed.
RESULTS: Fourteen textbooks (4 elementary and 10 secondary levels) were found to have relevant hearing health information covering topics of sound, ear and hearing, noise and hearing loss. The contents were mostly theoretical and lacked information about noise-induced hearing loss and proper hearing care.
CONCLUSION: Minimal hearing health information was present in the Malaysian school curriculum. The content was inadequate for teaching students about hearing loss prevention. Areas of improvement and research are recommended to improve school-based hearing health education in Malaysia.
DESIGN: In Phase I, 400 vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) nonsense word samples containing 20 Mandarin consonants in /a/, /i/, or /u/ contexts were recorded from two speakers of different genders. Acoustic analyses, sound quality ratings, and item validations were used to guide selection of items to form two gender-specific test lists. In Phase II, performance-intensity functions and test-retest reliability for the lists were established.
STUDY SAMPLE: Native Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing participated in Phase I (n = 10) and Phase II (n = 69).
RESULTS: Eighty-four of the 400 VCV words were selected to form two gender-specific test lists. A two-way repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant interaction effect between speaker-gender and presentation level [F (4.88, 283.20) = 22.79, p
DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE: Three translators were recruited to create the Albanian ESIT-SQ translation following good practice guidelines. Using this questionnaire, data from 107 patients attending otolaryngology clinics in Albania were collected.
RESULTS: Participants reporting various degrees of tinnitus symptom severity had distinct phenotypic characteristics. Application of a random forest approach on this preliminary dataset showed that self-reported hearing difficulty, and tinnitus duration, pitch and temporal manifestation were important variables for predicting tinnitus symptom severity.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study provided an Albanian translation of the ESIT-SQ and demonstrated that it is a useful tool for tinnitus profiling and subgrouping.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional, randomised, single-blinded study.
STUDY SAMPLE: An Oticon-Dynamo HA manual was translated and revised based on best practice guidelines. Ninety participants aged 55 years and above participated in this study. They were randomly assigned into the control group (received translated manual) and the experimental group (received the revised translated manual). The Hearing Aid Management (HAM) test, which was developed in a previous study, was conducted to evaluate participant's ability to perform HA management tasks using the translated and the revised version of Malay HA manual.
RESULTS: The revised Malay HA manual had a lower reading grade level relative to the initial translated Malay HA manual. The ability to perform HA management tasks was better in the experimental group (mean = 12.2, SD = 1.15) versus the control group (mean = 8.7, SD = 2.11).
CONCLUSION: Further revision of existing HA manuals based on best practice guidelines is recommended to help individuals better manage their HAs.
DESIGN: Searches were performed in electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. The Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool and Melnyk Levels of Evidence were used to assess quality and level of evidence of eligible studies. Behaviours of hearing healthcare professionals were summarised descriptively.
STUDY SAMPLE: 17 studies met the inclusion criteria.
RESULTS: Twelve studies described behaviours of audiologists and five studies were intervention studies. Audiologists were typically task- or technically-oriented and/or dominated the interaction during hearing aid consultations. Two intervention studies suggested that use of motivational interviewing techniques by audiologists may increase hearing aid use in patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Most studies of clinicians' behaviours were descriptive, with very little research linking clinician behaviour to patient outcomes. The present review sets the research agenda for better-controlled intervention studies to identify which clinician behaviours better promote patient hearing aid outcomes and develop an evidence base for best clinical practice.
DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study.
STUDY SAMPLE: 1068 subjects issued with HAs at a tertiary hospital from 2001 to 2013.
RESULTS: Half of the subjects presented with more severe (>55 dB) hearing loss (HL) in their better ear. In multivariable analysis, older age, Malay ethnicity, conductive and mixed HL, and combination type of HL were associated with more severe HL at first presentation. Over 70% of subjects were older than 65 years. Worse pure tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds of the better ear, gradual onset and sensorineural HL were associated with older age presentation. For unilaterally fitted subjects, PTA thresholds were the only determinant of having the better ear aided. Better PTA thresholds, younger age and sensorineural HL were associated with choosing in ear compared to behind the ear HAs. Younger age and worse PTA of the better ear were associated with ≥4 h of daily HA usage.
CONCLUSIONS: Age, ethnicity and type of HL were important determinants for more severe HL at first HA fitting. Older patients and those with better hearing were less likely to use their HAs regularly.
DESIGN: Quasi-experimental and repeated measure study designs were applied in this study. Two different stopping criteria were used, (1) a fixed-signal averaging 4000 sweeps and, (2) a minimum quality indicator of Fmp = 3.1 with a minimum of 800 sweeps.
STUDY SAMPLE: Twenty-nine normally hearing adults (18 females, 11 male) participated.
RESULTS: Wave V amplitudes were significantly larger in the LS CE-Chirp® recorded from the vertical montage than the ipsilateral montage. Waves I and III amplitudes were significantly larger from the ipsilateral LS CE-Chirp® than from the other montages and stimulus combinations. The differences in the quality of the ABR recording between the vertical and ipsilateral montages were marginal.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the result suggested that the vertical LS CE-Chirp® ABR had a high potential for a threshold-seeking application, because it produced a higher wave V amplitude. The Ipsilateral LS CE-Chirp® ABR, on the other hand, might also have a high potential for the site of lesion application, because it produced larger waves I and III amplitudes.
DESIGN: An online survey exploring current practice, skills and confidence of audiologists, and the infrastructure and facilities available in their workplaces, was distributed to audiologists in Malaysia via professional associations and social media.
STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 111 audiologists, 84.7% female and 15.3% male (range = 23-44 years), participated in the study.
RESULTS: Although audiologists in Malaysia reported addressing all of the ICF domains, less than 26% of them assessed the patients' speech perception, carried out real-ear measurements, or used outcome measures routinely. The majority of the audiologists reported feeling confident in managing adult patients. However, 83% of the audiologists indicated they wanted to improve their skills related to management of adult patients, particularly in the areas of counselling and auditory training.
CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate infrastructure, resources and facilities in the workplace may have contributed to the gaps in service provision and influenced the current practice of audiological management for adult patients in Malaysia.
DESIGN: The MHINT-T and the MyHINT were presented in quiet and noise (front, right and left) conditions under headphones. Results for the two tests were compared with each other and with the norms for each test.
STUDY SAMPLE: Malaysian Chinese native speakers of Mandarin (N = 58), 18-31 years of age with normal hearing.
RESULTS: On average, subjects demonstrated poorer speech perception ability than the normative samples for these tests. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were slightly poorer on the MHINT-T than on the MyHINT for all test conditions. However, normalized SRTs were poorer by 0.6 standard deviations for MyHINT as compared with MHINT-T.
CONCLUSIONS: MyHINT and MHINT-T can be used as norm-referenced speech perception measures for Mandarin-speaking Chinese in Malaysia.