A cross-domain test battery for comprehensive hearing loss characterisation using functional, physiological, and vestibular measures

Objective This binational cross-centre study analyses a consented audiological-vestibular test battery for characterising age-related hearing loss, enabling precise phenotyping of suprathreshold functional, physiological, and vestibular factors beyond audibility. Design Statistical analysis of centre effects to assess comparability of the test battery measured at two centres (Germany and France); statistical analysis of age and pure-tone average (PTA) effects per test to identify potential covariates. Sample n = 55 (39 German and 16 French) participants with hearing thresholds better than the age-dependent median of the PTA, aged 40 years or older. Results Age- and PTA-dependent reference data were derived. Due to negligible centre effects, all data were pooled across centres. Age and PTA effects were identified for some tests, especially for audiological-functional tests. No age effects were found for vestibular tests. Conclusions Normative values for a clinically feasible, multidimensional audiological-vestibular test battery were provided, including several measures whose age and PTA dependencies were previously unclear. Age and PTA should be considered as covariates for interpretation of these tests in future applications such as, e.g., phenotype-genotype relations in specified cohorts.