Questions refer to Billings et al, “A Large-Scale Examination of Veterans with Normal Pure-Tone Hearing Thresholds within the Department of Veterans Affairs,” 928–935.
Learner Outcomes:
Readers of this article should be able to:
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Identify the prevalence of Veterans with normal pure-tone thresholds seen within the VA system.
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Describe the prevalence of abnormal clinical test results among these Veterans with normal pure-tone thresholds.
CEU Questions:
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Which of the following is true regarding best practice guidelines for treatment of patients with hearing difficulties that have normal pure-tone hearing thresholds?
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guidelines have been published
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all audiologists agree on what treatment(s) should be recommended for those with normal hearing reporting hearing difficulties
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guidelines have not been published and many audiologists are unsure how to treat this population.
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Patients with normal hearing thresholds who report hearing difficulty have been linked to following conditions:
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selective dysacusis, auditory processing disorder
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addiction disorders, obscure auditory dysfunction
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auditory inferiority complex, obesity
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Veteran’s with normal hearing pure-tone thresholds are unique in that they often have
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Why can't conclusions about age and hearing loss be drawn from the results?
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thresholds were limited to 25 dB HL
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patients over 90 were aggregated into a single category because of HIPAA regulations
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standard error for populations older than 60 were too large
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In this study, what percentage of veterans were determined to have normal hearing with pure-tone thresholds ≤ 25 dB HL at all octave frequencies?
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In Veterans with normal hearing pure-tone thresholds, what is the prevalence of having an abnormality on at least one additional test in either ear?
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Which of the following is true regarding notches in this population of Veterans?
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left ear notches were more prevalent and deeper
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right ear notches were more prevalent and deeper
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no differences were seen in the prevalence or depth of notches between the right and left ear
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Compared to civilian populations, this study found the prevalence of Veterans with normal hearing to be:
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twice as high
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the same
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lower
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Which of the following is a reason that the prevalence number from this article may underestimate the number of Veterans with normal thresholds?
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interoctave frequencies were not considered in the analysis
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test results were not consistently entered into the repository when hearing aids were not ordered
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the majority of patients presented with subjective complaints of hearing loss
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What evidence from this article supports testing -inter-octave frequencies in Veterans?
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abnormal word recognition in about 5% of normal-hearing Veterans
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audiometric notches are present only at 3k and 6k Hz in about 5% of normal-hearing Veterans
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abnormal acoustic reflex testing results in 30% of normal-hearing Veterans
