Hearing screening for school children with otitis media using otoacoustic emission measures

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using a technique other than pure-tone screening audiometry for the identification of slight or greater hearing loss in an urban population of indigenous Australian primary school children. Indigenous children have a higher prevalence of conductive hearing loss, associated with otitis media, than non-indigenous children in the same schools. Transient otoacoustic emission procedures were used as an alternative identification technique to pure tone screening audiometry. The otoacoustic emission results were compared with pure tone audiometry findings for the 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children involved in the study. Comparison was made with pure tone audiometry for otoacoustic emission screening accuracy (in determining hearing loss >15 dB HL average) and also test practicality in urban school environments. Transient otoacoustic emission recording was found to show potential as a means of identifying slight or greater levels of hearing loss in a school environment. Test time was typically brief (less than 2 minutes per ear) and child acceptance of the otoacoustic emission procedure was good. Screening accuracy varied greatly with pass/fail criterion used, ranging from 16.2% to 83.8% sensitivity and from 20.7% to 93.1% specificity. With further development, transient otoacoustic emission screening techniques may reach a level of accuracy where such a procedure could be used as an alternative to traditional pure tone audiometric screening.